The Fast Life
by ChescaLaLa
Summary: Ana meets Christian at a party while in her second year of university, they start a whirlwind romance that has Ana ending it and moving down to L.A. to try and forget about her passionate and tumultuous relationship with the infamous Christian Grey. A few facts have changed and obviously I've taken creative liberty for most of the story line, please enjoy! On Hiatus :(
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:** Okay so I've had this story in my computer for quite some time, it wasn't originally based on Fifty shades but as I've been thinking about the trilogy this scenario kept playing in my head. I never thought I would actually write a fanfic on Christian and Ana! Let me know if you like it if you don't, I was merely trying to play out a fantasy in my head on paper! Xo

I do not own any of the original characters from fifty shades.

Another bright sunny day in beautiful Los Angeles, California the sunlight just beginning to stream through my blinds and heating up the room; how can anyone feel melancholy in such a beautiful place? Where I come from it rains at least 6 months of the year, snow for a month, and have some sun thrown in there if we're lucky. You might be asking where I could find such a dreadful place, oh just 1279 miles or so from here in Vancouver, British Columbia, the place where I ran from. Before you jump into conclusions it's not what you might think, I'm not talking about getting hurt physically by something or someone from there, I'm not in protective services or anything like that it's more like I'm running away from my heart. My heart is in Vancouver, not all of it just some key pieces; you probably have guessed it, its boy drama, but not just about any sort boy, _the_ boy. They say first love never works out, but what if you've dated other guys before that, and he was the first one you fell for completely? Are you supposed to work it out with them or leave it alone? Well I sort of chose the latter not really giving him much choice to debate any of it, when shit hit the fan I ran.

I met him the autumn of my second year of university that summer prior to our meeting was full of ups and downs; I dated a creepy stalker for a month and then ended up capping off the season with a guy I had a crush on for years in high school… I think it's safe to say it didn't pan out. I began the new year at the University of British Columbia, but I felt completely stuck in a rut after the lacklustre summer I had. So when I was invited to go to a party kicking off the new semester I gladly came, that night was when my whole life changed.

_I was hanging out at my friends in the hallway, when Christian passed me by; handsome, dark hair, gray eyes, tall, and built like an Adonis. He wasn't the type I would go for usually because he seemed like the heartbreaker type, but there was just something about him that drew me in. When our eyes met for the one moment somehow connected us, like we were the only ones in that house, no music, no people, just us. But of course, the moment was over much too quickly as my friends dragged me into the bathroom to do a spot check, when I finally got out of there he was nowhere to be seen not wanting to make a bigger deal about it I decided to forget about the mysterious man with the beautiful gray eyes. Soon the already too crowded party became a tad too drunk as the night wore on, I was getting groped by random left right and centre so I decided to I bee-line it to the door to get some fresh air. As I weaved myself through the crowd I finally found the door, but not before someone stepped on my foot which caused me to tumble out. Luckily, that man with the beautiful eyes caught me just before I could fall on my face and make a fool out myself which may I add, I do quite well._

_ "Are you okay?" He asked._

_ "Fine," I answered trying to straighten my top, "thanks for that."_

_ "No problem," he looks at me with those beautiful eyes._

_ "Why are you out here," I asked him quizzically, "not that I'm unappreciative about you saving me an all."_

_ "Crowded places aren't really my thing, I'm only here, because of my brother Elliott and his new girlfriend Tammy."_

_ "Ahh, gotcha," I laughed, "well at least you're here, because you got roped in to, I'm here by choice," I sat down on the top stair he follows, "I'm trying to survive my second year of university, but I'm unfortunately very bored at the moment."_

_ He looked at me, he furrows his eyebrows as my words sink in, stammering, "I don't mean that I'm bored at this very moment," I turn red, "I mean I'm bored with my classes… sorry."_

_ He laughs, "I'm just joking, my name's Christian," he sticks out his hand._

_ "Ana, well Anastasia, I prefer Ana," shaking his hand, a jolt of electricity runs through his hand into mine and I quickly take my hand away._

_ We ended up talking the whole night on top of the stairs until my friends and his brother started came out to find us. We exchanged numbers and that night he called me; sometimes I think back and wonder if I never met him would I still have ended up where I am today or would I just have been stuck living in Vancouver? I guess we'll never know. _

My phone rings and the familiar sound of my coffee machine starting, _sigh_ a new day. My agent Carlos Zoltana, the self-proclaimed 'Go to' person in Hollywood, was probably calling to check up on me from last night. The man was challenging himself; he claimed he can make me the hottest new thing since Mary –Kate Olsen finding Cocaine he claimed he was going to put me in every single TV set in North America, my caramel waves still intact from last night's soiree. Yes, my original chocolate brown hair was sort of plain according to Carlos. I turned to my side looking at the curve of my back; I took off my robe and looked at myself with my lingerie my breast appearing larger from the corset I fell asleep in. Christian always told me I was the most beautiful girl he's ever seen and to never change a thing about me, but when I moved here it was the very first thing they changed, they made my already long hair longer, dyed, and waxed me everywhere. I was sore for days!

The phone keeps ringing; I answered pressing the speaker button I sigh, "Good morning Carlos, how are you this morning?" I asked walking around my apartment.

"I'm fine doll, and yourself," he coos, I roll my eyes he's such schmuck.

"You have a brunch date with Jane and I, about what's going to happen in the next month and you'll be meeting someone who will be playing a very large and important role in your new life."

I sigh, "This better not be another blind date or one of those dates for hire, I'm starting to feel like a hooker."

"You exaggerate, I never tell you that you to sleep with them, that's only a bonus," I can just picture him winking.

"Arghh, Carlos, stop being a dick."

"I'm just kidding doll."

"Well, be ready and at the Palm by 11 be prompt you don't want to be late for this," he laughs.

"Alright see you later," I hung up the phone and head straight for the bathroom.

_We talked all night every night for two weeks straight clocking up to 8 hours minimum and we saw each other almost every couple of days either taking me down there or coming up to Vancouver, Christian is a mind-numbingly successful, sexy, and young entrepreneur who constantly reminded me that money to him was not an object. I was quickly falling for him not because of his vast wealth or his looks, but how he treated me and who he was inside, everything else was just add-ons. Everything with him was exciting and new even if it was just watching Sabrina on the couch at his penthouse. Christian and I were moving fast, but it felt so right between us I missed him when he wasn't around and yearned for a message from him, I was starting to act like a lovesick teenager. I know he had a past that is still some what present in his life, he was in a sticky situation with the most unbearable woman I have ever met, the few times we've met she was like a dog marking her territory. Christian had kept brushing it off and always reassured me that I was the only thing he needed, but sometimes I'd doubt that._

I look at the digital clock on the wall, 9:45 am. Great. I have to be ready in 45 minutes to get there nice and early for this mystery guest, I'm not quite sure how he expected me to be prepared for this since he only did just call me an hour ago. As I was getting into the shower taking off my bobby pins and placing them in a nook on the wall I begin to think that maybe it's someone from the new film he wants me to meet. This July I'll be filming for a month in Mexico, then Australia for another month, and then back to L.A. for wrap up; this is my first major roll. I'm 21 and I'm already carrying a movie maybe Carlos was an actual miracle man kick starting my career within six months of moving to L.A. I'm using the term career quite loosely, I've never thought I'd actually be doing this, I remember as a kid pretending to be in a movie that I saw. I just thought I was much too plain to be in the middle of Hollywood going to casting calls. I only really fell into this line of work, writing is still my number one passion, but this move to California was only made to distance myself from the heartache. So I moved from the city I called home and to the people I loved the most to forget about my failed relationship with the only man I've ever really loved.

I met Carlos when I was at the doctor's office getting a check up since I was feeling a little under the weather, I had only been in my new home a couple of weeks and I was planning on finishing up my schooling; Carlos noticed me when I sat across from him while he waited with his then-girlfriend Michelle, she was an aspiring model. We began talking, he complimented me on my bone structure and my long legs, I thought he was just being a pervert. He offered me an exciting new life, obviously I was sceptical, but I thought how harmful would it be for a little coffee date. I eventually called the card he gave me to set up a time and after that he booked me in small commercials, then eventually I was signed on a popular mini-series turned that into a full-fledged drama _Jack_, where I play Jack's long lost little sister who he teams up with to find our real father and bring our family back together; then played a supporting role on the blockbuster, _Unbreakable_; played the lead role in the indie movie '_Running with Scissors'_; and spokesperson for Flora Kats a new up and coming designer. I had become an overnight thing, I wouldn't call myself a celebrity, I still don't have a Perez Hilton page yet, Carlos so I know I've made it when Perez or JustJared has been talking about me all day. I'm now living the dream that most aspiring actors move to L.A. for, at times I feel undeserving when really this was all an act to help me forget about him. I had changed my numbers, closed my accounts, and created a new email, but it is Christian Grey he found me within a week of searching, I eventually told him to hit the road and that I felt nothing for him, but that was an outright lie that kills me every time I think about his sad face.

Trying to get all thoughts of Christian out of my head, I threw on a silky flowing dress dried my hair, sprayed on some leave-in conditioner, put on a pair of gladiator sandals and was out of the door by 10:25 am. I went down the elevator to the parking lot and hopped into my carbon black Aston Martin Virage, it was sexy and the very first thing I purchased down here. I'm not really into cars and I would be the first to admit that I don't know the first thing about them, but I do know how to change my oil thanks to best-friend back home, Jamie. My baby is fast and shiny, Carlos told me when he signed me to act the part and everyone will follow; an Aston Martin would fit just perfectly into the life I was building. As the parking lot gate opened I zoomed past it and turned right; I like getting lost in my thoughts of Christian while I drive around the city, this was the only time I let myself freely think about him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note:** Hello everyone the feedback has been tremendous thank you, thank you thank you! I hope that you guys like this chapter, I will get back to all of the reviewers this weekend and all of the guest reviews thank you for taking the time to post something! It is much appreciated! I wanted ot bang this chapter out and not keep you all in suspense, but since I do have school and work the updates won't be as frequent, but I will definitely try for every few days! THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN XO

_That night Christian showed up at my doorstep apologizing about fighting with me, "Hey," he smiles as he leans on the doorframe in his suit, god he looked sexy._

"_Hi," I say trying not to react to him being at my door, "what can I do for you?"_

"_I miss you," Great! Three words that make me lose all my steam, "can we talk?"_

"_We're talking now aren't we?"_

"_Yeah, you're right… Listen, I know I was wrong, I shouldn't have gotten so angry," he says sounding sincere, "I have to tell you something, can I come in?"_

"_Oh god, I don't like the sound of that," I sigh, "come in."_

_When we sit down on my couch in my living room the coffee table in complete disarray, my books were all open and half finished notes lying on top, "Do you remember Elena?"_

"_How could I forget? The blonde bombshell."_

"_Ana," he stiffens but ignores my remark, "I have to tell you our history before I can even begin explaining how it affects us."_

_Us? I love us, but hate where this is imminently going, "Go on."_

"_We had a relationship when I was younger."_

_My heart stops, "A… a… a relationship?"_

"_Yes, Ana."_

"_But she's as old as your mom!" I yell a little too loud and jump up from my seat._

"_Let me explain," he says quickly, "when I was a fifteen she and I began a sort of a relationship."_

"_You had sex with her?" I ask going pale._

"_Yes."_

"_For how long?" his face looked so remorseful._

"_Six years, it stopped when I was 21."_

"_Six years! That's a long time, did she teach you that stuff?"_

"_Yes, I was her submissive."_

"_Hers…"_

"_Ana, please listen, she's only a friend and a business partner, you have absolutely nothing to worry about," he looks at me sternly, "but she's gotten into some trouble."_

"_What sort of trouble?" I inch a way from him trying to process what he's just told me, he tries to take my hands but immediately pull them away._

"_Ana, I'm sorry I can't change the past, I wish I could, but I can't. Please you have to understand." _

"_Give me some time to process this will you? You can't just spring this sort of thing on me and expect me to just bounce back with the snap of your fingers," I huff._

"_I know, I'm sorry," he says standing up and turning to the door._

"_Why are you leaving?" I demanded, worry creeping in my head clouding my judgement._

"_Giving you time," he says softly._

"_Time to run to her?" I say snidely, not at all thinking about the weight of my words._

"_I would never. Anastasia, there is no other relationship going on with Elena or any other woman for that matter other than a business one," he says as he sits back down._

"_How can I be so sure," I ask becoming small, letting insecurity cloud my already skewed judgment._

"_I would never cheat on you!" he yells exasperated._

_I stand quietly not wanting to say anything to make him angrier with me, "Think about it from my perspective."_

"_I know, I'm sorry for yelling, but you have to believe me, I am not with her."_

_I sat back down calming myself a little, "So what's the problem?"_

"_Her ex- husband is giving her hell so left to get away from him, but now she needs me to go down there and sort all of this shit out."_

"_Christian, that's not your problem, let Mrs. Robinson fend for herself," I snap, this bitch was taking him away from me!_

"_Mrs. Robinson… Ana, don't start."_

"_Don't tell me don't start!" I snap back, _

"_It was a consensual relationship!" he says throwing his hands up in defeat._

"_You were a child!"_

"_Anastasia, you're being rather childish at the moment."_

"_Don't you dare Christian!" _

"_I'll talk to you in the morning when you've calmed down, Anastasia," he says getting up and heading for the door, I don't say anything or make any move to stop him, "goodnight" he says when he finally closes the door behind him._

I love you was all I wanted to say to him, yell to him. But I know he'll never say it back to me, he always tells me that he's too fifty shades of fucked up to have a heart. At that moment all I wanted was for him to take me in his arms and cure all of my insecurities, but instead he left leaving my ever running brain on high. I wish that the fifty that I know knew that he had a heart, but I know he just isn't aware of it, but it shows especially when he's so keen on helping that bitch Elena.

I made it to the Palm at exactly 10:58, I gave my keys to the valet and walked in, and the hostess smiled at me warmly and led me to my table. I was looking around to see them, I spot Jane first and then Carlos gets up from table, he saunters up to me and gives me air kisses on both cheek.

He whispers in my ear, "I told you to be early."

"I'm sorry! You said prompt, I'm not late," I gave him a smile, the hostess leaves us and I can finally see this mystery guest. My heart skipped a beat and I started to sweat, seeing that face for the first time in months made me want to both jump into his arms and bolt out of the restaurant. I decided on the latter and I almost succeeded, but Carlos had an iron grip on my arm.

He got up, cleared his throat, and stuck his hand out for me to shake, "Hi."

Carlos pinches me, "Say something."

"Uuhhmm, Hello," I take his hand and shake it; the same electricity made it's way through our hands.

Christian smiles and offers me an empty chair; I snap out of my embarrassing trance and sit down, I don't know how he's gotten better looking since I last saw him. Our server asked me what I would like to drink, it took me awhile but I was finally able to gather my thoughts and ordered a blueberry sweetened iced tea.

Jane broke the silence first, "Glad that you finally made it Anastasia, we were here fifteen minutes ago, betting what time you will make your appearance. I'm glad that you joined us just in time," Jane laughs brings her perfectly manicured hand up her mouth. Jane Mackey was my publicist; she was perfect, platinum blonde hair, model tall, and curvy in all the right places. She spoke like she graduated from Harvard and acted like she was royalty; I guess she was one, well American Royalty anyway. Her family is one of the oldest oil tycoons in North America, when I first met her I could barely get her to look at me without any sort of disdain. I didn't dress in designer clothes, I usually wore jeans and a t-shirt during days I had no meetings or go-sees. When I met her the very first thing she said to me after assessing my clothing choice was to never leave the house unprepared for the paparazzi, because apparently in less than a year I wouldn't be able to leave my house without needing a security detail. I didn't believe her of course, I chalked it up to her trying to scare me into leaving. I came here to write screenplays, but instead I've found myself on the other side of the camera.

Carlos piped in, "This is Christian Grey, if you didn't already know, but by the looks of how shocked you were, I'm guessing you know of him."

"Yes, I know…" I say still stammering, what is he doing here?

"About a month or so ago Christian approached me to be your manager knowing who he was I jumped at the chance," he laughs.

I look at him my mouth falling open; I can't believe what I'm hearing, "Manager? I thought that was your job."

"Well I was acting manager until we found a permanent solution, then Christian came at such an opportune time I had no choice," he smiles at me.

My stomach does somersault, "I need a few minutes," I say and get up to go to the bathroom, making my way into one of the stalls I sit down and bury my face in my hands. Why is he doing this? Doesn't he know that all I wanted to do was get him out of my mind to finally fall out of love with him making our separation easier? God I even dream about him, even in my unconscious state he's never far off in my mind and I chastise myself each time an unwanted thought of him came lingering in my already frazzled brain. Seeing him here made me ache for him more. I knew what I was giving up when I left him, but it was all the best for him and his family. Getting out of my stall I look myself over the mirror and gathered my wits as I exited the restroom.

"Sorry," I say meekly taking my seat next to him.

"It's quite alright," Christian replies, his gray eyes shining I miss those eyes looking at me.

Carlos breaks our eye contact, "So you two will pretty much be inseparable for the next month until June, when you two will fly down to Mexico together."

"WHAT!? Don't you think he should take a backseat, you know be sort of behind the scenes?" I start to panic, "Christian don't you have actual business to attend to?" Any amount of time I spend with him would be too much and I would go back on my word and this painful separation would be in vain. I begin to panic; I can't let this happen since I've already done so much.

"You'll be fine, everything that happens, happens for a reason just pretend that it's organic," Carlos says trying to reassure me.

"When does this start," I asked concern apparent on my face.

"Oh as soon as possible, darling," Jane answered.

I slump in my seat, I know Carlos and Jane will never see reason, but Christian might, I need to talk to him as soon as we have a free moment.

"It won't be that bad," Christian tries to soothe me seeing my worried face; I grimace casting my gaze down to my hands.

"So what does this mean," I asked, I should have been weary when Carlos told me that this meeting would be a big change. You can never really be too surprised at what Hollywood throws your way or I guess Christian throws your way.

"Well starting today Christian insists to be part of your day to day life, he definitely wants to be hands on," Carlos answered, he only stops to speak when the server comes back asking us if we decided on what we were having, I ordered the burger with everything and sweet potato fries; Jane was not happy.

"You know you have that photo shoot tomorrow for Marie Claire," Jane says disapprovingly.

"You're worse than my mother," I roll my eyes.

"I don't think she needs to watch her weight, she looks pretty good," Christian says in my defense, "I'm happy you still have your appetite, but the eye rolling leaves much to be desired," he says quietly to me. I give him a small smile and Jane in turns shakes her head in disapproval.

"You're absolutely welcome, well what are our plans today?" He asks, sipping on his Coke.

"I'm pretty sure you already know what it is," I scowl at him as he gives me a quizzical look, appeasing him I run down my schedule for the day, "well I was going to a fitting for another photo shoot coming up this Tuesday, then the gym," I answer begrudgingly. I turn to Carlos almost instantaneously "I completely forgot! Carlos, does this affect my trip back home next week?"

"Not at all, he'll be accompanying you," Carlos smiles all too happily.

My mouth drops, "Christian, you really don't have to come," I tell him the panic evident in my voice.

"Of course, I already knew I was going, I hope it's not much of a bother," Christian tries soothing me by grabbing my hand; I pull away his touch much too hot.

"Oh, it's no bother at all, I just didn't want you to feel like you were obligated to come," I say a little embarrassed.

"Look at you two, already getting along!" Jane gushes.

My cheeks turn red as the food arrives at our table, we make small talk for a while, but I sort of tune them out to try and get a grasp on what was going to be taking place in the upcoming month. I took a bite of my burger slowly, the one thing I had to do was stay away from him and I couldn't even do that. I look at everyone at the table they were all talking and munching along happily while I look down and see that my burger barely has dent and my fries were getting cold.

_Christian called me that night and apologized for not being more patient with me and that he knew what he was saying was a lot of information to process. I just wanted to get lost in him, but I knew that I needed to distance myself in order to not fall for him more, he was a lose string, a large question mark. There was no doubt that he cared, but I don't know if he cares for me the way that I do and that worries me, he has my heart in his hands and he could crush it any time. I was falling in love with him every time we had vanilla sex or our trysts in the Red Room of Pain, every time he would show me his heart I fell for him more and more. His family has told me I was doing a huge number on him, he had never acted like this let alone bring a girl home for them to meet, I was breaking new ground every day. Our love was unspoken, I was much too afraid to tell him and he would never realize it for himself. I would have to catch myself from telling him so, because I didn't want him to run away, but deep down I knew he never really would. That man was mine only, no matter how many subs he's had I was the first to somewhat break his walls down._

_The talk about Elena was soon forgotten and our lives went back to normal or so it seemed, but one afternoon after school I checked my mailbox and found a letter addressed to me with no postage stamp or any addresses, the sender had to have dropped it off themselves and that mere thought sent chills up my spine. I brought it inside and tore it open, there was only one line on the piece of paper that had been folded, "He's mine." I was immediately frightened, I through it deep inside my desk hoping that the whole adage "out of sight out of mind", will ring through for me._


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note:** Hello all! I updated, I really wanted to get this one out so I could focus on studying for my midterm on Monday, so I hope you guys enjoy it! Thank you for all the nice reviews, story alerts and favourites they are very much appreciated! Have a great Sunday or Monday wherever you guys are! Xo

The lunch goes by rather slowly, all I could think about was getting out of there and finding some actual air to breathe. Being in Christian's presence has reverted me back to that lovesick girl that I was all those long months ago resurrecting all of those feelings that I've somehow buried away, but my thoughts were interrupted when Christian placed his hand on top of mine and gave me a tight smile.

"You two should get acquainted Christian," Carlos says to him.

"I fully intend to," he says, visibly charming both of them.

"Well we should get going and leave you two be, take care of her," he says to Christian.

"I couldn't think of anything more important," he reassures him and grabs the bill in the centre of the table, "I'll get this."

"Well you can afford it," Jane cackles.

"That I can," Christian gives Jane his mega-watt smile and gets up from the table.

As Christian leaves the table to pay Carlos quickly starts talking, "Ana, behave yourself."

"I'm not a child," I tell him sullenly.

"Just charm him, you have that small town feel to you," Jane interjected.

"I'm from Vancouver," I roll my eyes at her, "that's hardly a small town."

"You have much to learn, it's precious," she laughs at me; I could barely restrain my annoyance from peeking out.

Before I could even get another word in Christian returns with a big smile, grabbing my waist and I automatically fall into him, I castigate myself for my disobedient reflexes.

"Let's go? You can drive us back, Taylor will follow," he says to me and turns to our two companions, "it was nice to see you both again."

"Yes, you too," Jane coos and Carlos nods with a big smile on his face, you can practically see the dollar signs in his eyes.

I was still a little stunned and all I could muster was a nod, I couldn't believe that he was actually here being more overbearing as ever. Just yesterday I was dreaming about him in my bed and now he's here touching me, but I cautioned myself I knew that I couldn't let myself fall in deeper I have to get him to leave. Make him believe that there is nothing for him here, but then again I thought I already made it clear the last time he tracked me down.

We both say goodbye to the two and walk out of the restaurant, I give the valet my number so they could get my car, "Well Ana, I didn't expect this from you," he says at my car comes to view.

I shrug at him we both get in I take a deep breath and start driving, I roll down the windows to get some fresh air circulating he was much too close to think coherently. We drove in silence for a while until I finally let myself utter an actual full intelligible sentence.

"What are you doing here? I know you didn't just decide one day that you wanted to micromanage me. I meant what I said to you that night, I can't be with you," I grip the wheel harder not wanting to let the truth slip through my lips.

"I would wait forever for you," he says sincerely.

My heart flops down to my stomach all I wanted to hold on to him and never let go, but this would be counter-productive to my cause, "Please don't start that."

"It's the truth, I have not been with anyone or even thought of another woman while we were apart, you are my forever Ana, I love you."

"Christian…" I begin as I turn my head towards him.

"Please keep your eyes on the road," he says sternly.

I whip my head back and stare at the road as we drive in silence letting his words sink in.

_A few weeks pass without another thought about the mysterious letter deep inside my desk things between Christian and I are becoming a lot more serious with weekly family dinners at his parents' home and our frequent dates. I'm constantly praised for the obvious effect I have on him, but if only it were actually true; I've practically moved into his apartment in Seattle on the weekends. He would take me boating around the Sound; sometimes he would even let me drive it._

_It was a gray Sunday, thick clouds were forming and you could tell that rainfall was looming, we were both standing looking over the water with his arm around me. I was filled with dread I didn't want the weekend to end, because he was going to fly me back to Vancouver shortly after docking that then fly down to New York for some business deal this week. Not only would I be without him for a week, but also I'm forced to take Sawyer, Taylor's number one, to and from school during his absence. I know he would love it if I agreed to have him with me at all times, but that honestly would be too much for me to handle, I tried to reason with him that there was no possible way I could successfully explain to my classmates that this big man standing behind me was my security, I could picture being laughed at endlessly._

"_I'm going to miss you this entire week," Christian whispers as he nuzzles my hair._

"_Me too," I reply as I lean into him closer and close my eyes, he still has a problem with me touching him, but I'd like to think I'm sort of chipping away at it, what I would do to be able to touch his chest and kiss all of his scars. A mere half an hour later we dock and drive down to Sea-Tac, my stomach was churning knowing that in mere minutes we will fly back home and I will not be able to see him for almost an entire week. _

_Thirty minutes later we're driving in my car back home, the entire ride down here I felt like I needed to finally tell him that I love him. This is the first time he'll be leaving for more than two days and I couldn't bear not telling him before he goes, and deep down inside I just wanted him to hear it from me and have him return it._

_He opens the door for me and we sit on the stools in the kitchen, he has his hands in mine, "I love you, Christian," I tell him my voice quiet, I could feel him immediately stiffen._

"_I… I can't," he quickly says letting go of my hands and immediately off the chair, "you can't."_

"_Christian, come on we've been together for months now and look at where we are, you can't honestly tell me that you don't feel anything like that for me?" I plead my heart beating faster than ever._

"_You can't love me," he says plainly as he backs away from me._

"_Don't walk away from me," I quietly beg him as I get up from my chair and walk up to him, I try to take his hand, but he quickly swipes it away. _

"_Take it back," he implores._

"_I won't, because it's the truth," I say to him as my heart begins to break, I honestly didn't think he would tell me to take it back. How could he not even feel remotely the same about me?_

"_You can't love me, it's not possible."_

"_Yes it is, you have no idea how amazing you are," I try to explain to him._

"_NO! Stop," he yells._

_And with that I break down and crumble to the floor tears relentlessly falling from my eyes, "All I wanted was you and your love," I whispered, I could here the quick shuffle of his feet and within seconds he's gathered me into his arms, "no get out."_

"_What?"_

"_You don't love me, so you don't get the right to stay here and comfort me. Go."_

"_Ana.."_

"_No, Christian, please leave."_

"_Okay," he says as lets go of me and gives me a light kiss on my head, he stands up and walks out of my house leaving only the faint scent of his cologne. _

_Was I asking too much? Was I supposed to read between the lines? All of the things he shared, was that how he expressed his love for me? Was this my fault? Did I push him too far, when really all he had to say were those three words? It really was very simple; all I needed was for him to be honest with himself and me. When I eventually managed to pick myself up from the floor I made my way to my cold and empty bed without Christian. _

When we arrive at my place, I swipe my key at the gate and made our way to my apartment, the elevator ride was excruciatingly painful as all my thoughts were all scattered around in my head. We enter the hallway to my home I take my shoes off and walk into my room without a word to him; I get changed in a pair of black yoga pants and a purple tank top. As I enter the living room I see Christian has already made himself comfortable on my couch looking through all the scripts I had lying around.

"You've really flourished down here," he says not looking up.

"I guess," I mumble at him as I grab some water, "what are you actually doing here?"

"When I told you that day all of those months ago that I would wait for you I meant it," he says simply.

"That's all good and well, but why did you have to make such a big commotion and bring Jane and Carlos into it, I think they expect for you to actually make good with your managerial duties."

"And I will."

I raise an eyebrow at him, "Christian, you have GEH to deal with, an actual multi-billion dollar enterprise, what are you doing wasting your time here with me?"

"I missed you."

I stifle a laugh, "Well I missed you too, but that doesn't mean I was going to track you down and worm my way into your work life."

"You admit it," he smiles at me as he rests crosses his arms rather smugly.

"You're insufferable."

"Some would think it's romantic," he laughs softly.

"Well they would all be from a mental institute, this is beyond stalking even for you. How did you manage to do this?"

"Ana, it was really very simple I merely looked at your imdb," he smiles, "and may I add you look rather delectable in those professional stills, even though you were photo shopped a bit. All I had to see who was representing you and just like that I was able to set up a meeting with Carlos"

I groan, "Carlos."

"Don't blame him, it's not everyday he has someone calling him specifically to manage you."

"Well now you can see that I'm all right, you can go back and manage your empire."

"I have Ros for that, and I intend to make good on my promise."

"Listen, I said goodbye to my life with you a long time ago so every time you have this crazy feeling to come and see me don't, because I'm trying to get over you!"

"See I never got it, why did you choose this? Not that you're not great at acting, I just never thought this sort of thing interested you," he smiles cockily completely evading the question how will I make him leave? I made a deal with the devil himself to protect this infuriating man in front of me, and the bitch only agreed if I stayed away from him.

"I told you this before I moved down here so I could write screenplays not act, this sort of fell into my lap."

"By pure chance," he cocks an eyebrow.

"Yes by chance! Unless you somehow made Carlos' girlfriend at time fall sick and have us eventually meet at the doctor's office."

"Of course not, that's crazy," he chuckles.

"You are absolutely impossible," I grumble as we fall silent for a while.

Finally he breaks the silence, "I know about the letters and the phone calls."


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note:**** Hello everyone! Here's another update, I think I'll try to update every Wednesday and Saturday/ Sunday? School is really kicking my ass, but I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! Love you guys, thanks for all the reviewers (I hope to get back to you guys eventually!), thank you for following, and all the favourites! Have a great rest of the week. XO!**

"What are you talking?" I asked hoping to sound passive.

"Don't play dumb Ana," he says as he scowls at me, "I'll be honest with you, it took me awhile to figure all of it out, she was smart covering her tracks like that," he exhales deeply. "I only started realizing it when I saw you last, something you said made me rethink the entire reason you were leaving. I let you believe that I accepted your choice, only so I could dig a little deeper I needed to know the truth for myself."

I die for a complete moment and all the blood stops pumping in my veins and I go completely white I continue my silence, he stands up from the couch, walking up to me he takes my face and kisses me lightly and I immediately melt into him.

"When you left for the last time I had Welch go through your records. Your phone records in the last three months, your apartment, hell even your school record. Everything. I needed to find you and since you weren't returning my phone calls and practically changed everything I had to start from the ground up, it was all very simple really."

"Christian…"

"I want to hear it from you Ana, why didn't you just tell me?" he says softly into my hair.

It takes me a moment until I steady my breathing, he leads me to the couch and keeps my hand around me, "We were so fractured. I love you so much that it hurt when you didn't return it so it was easier for me to let you go in that aspect. Elena was relentless she would call me from all hours of the night when you were on your business trips and sent me all of those messed up letters. We eventually met one night; well it wasn't intentional on my part she had people following my every move, I wasn't aware of she managed to learn everything about me; the bitch was being funded by her ex-husband," I sigh deeply as Christian sits silently next to me, "and to top it all off you and I had barely spoken to each other for a few weeks, I felt so alone. I didn't know what to do; she was telling me that if I didn't leave you alone she would ruin you and your company, I didn't believe her at first, but soon she started proving to me that she had already poked a few holes in your administration, she had a few moles already working hard for your demise. I laughed in her face initially, I thought she was delusional, but when she eventually showed me actual evidence of the deals she was going to pull the plug from. I was floundering, I didn't know how I could fix it, I felt like you were losing all of this because of me and I couldn't let that happen you worked hard for this so I decided to take her up on that deal she propositioned in the beginning. I knew that if I stayed with you she wouldn't even flinch in throwing punches at GEH…"

"Ana, I think I would be okay if some deals fell through," he looks at me seriously.

"No they weren't just 'some' deals, it was that Taiwan deal you had been working so hard to get, her ex-husband was all too willing to bury you, they knew that it would take a few more major flubbed deals to fracture you; he was relentless. But that was where they differed, Elena just wanted me out of the picture so she could be with you, but he just wanted you gone for what happened between the two of you," I sigh.

"So you left…"

"Not that easily," I confess, "it took all of me to finally leave you that last time, I had already packed a few things and I slipped out one night after seeing you, it broke my heart, but I had to do it."

"Ana," he was angery, but I know he was trying to show some restraint, "I don't need all this shit, all I want is you!"

"I'm so sorry Christian," I break down pulling away a little, but he holds onto me tighter.

"I'm sorry for getting angry."

"It's okay, I deserve it," I sigh into his chest, "eventually Elena had to double cross him to get him to back off, but trust me Christian if she finds out that you're here she won't hesitate to do anything rash."

He snorts, the beautiful bastard actually snorts, "I'm not afraid of her, I can't believe she's been feeding me all of these lies," he shakes his head in disbelief.

"Don't underestimate her," I warn.

"No I won't, but she really has another thing coming to her, she will never hurt me and especially you, ever again."

He takes out his phone and makes a call, "Welch, I want you to go through all of GEH's employees within the last year, we seem to have a few moles in our midst, also I want a thorough sweep of all of Elena's movement in the past year, I want to know everything from the moment she gets up and every time she gets her nails done. Understood?" he clicks off his phone. He turns back to me, "See all better," he smiles and carries me onto his lap.

"I'm still really sorry," I whisper.

"It's okay you're back here with me," he kisses my forehead, "promise me you'll never leave me again."

"I promise."

"Now that's settled, let's go home," he gives me a broad smile.

I stiffen, "Uh Christian I'm on contract, I still have to start this movie and do all of these other things for it, I can't just up and go."

"Didn't you only come here to get away from me due to my crazy ex domme?"

"Yes, but I also wanted to make a name for myself and maybe this isn't what I wanted to get into, but I'm enjoying it. I'm acting my age and I sort of enjoy it, yes I would love to be able to write more, but I can still do it in my spare time." Christian continues to stare at me in disbelief, "I do want to make a name for myself without you."

"Without me…"

"You know what I mean!" I get off of him and decide to distance myself a bit, "I don't mean literally without you, I meant that I wanted to make it on my own and I sort of have, this, my life now is a blessing. I have so many open doors, I don't know why you can't see that."

"I get it Ana, I just don't want to share you with the world, I could take care of you."

"Christian, believe it or not being taken care of isn't one of my life goals, if we're going to do this and be successful we have to be equal partners. I know you have the irrepressible need to control things because of your past, but I can't be one of them, I won't let you dictate my life," I stand up from my seat and start pacing in front of him. I couldn't believe what he was saying; I never knew he would actually ask me to abandon my life so I can cater to his every whim. "I think you need… I mean we both need to think about what we need from each other before we can even get ourselves sorted, I love you, I will always love you, but I can't be what you want. I can't let you control me in that way, you have to learn to respect me as an equal."

"I respect you, it's not that I don't want you to be happy and to enjoy your life, I would never want to stop you from doing what you love, but I know you don't love this job, this isn't you," he says trying to tread water.

"This isn't me?" I say appalled, "then what am I? Your trophy wife, left in your ivory tower?"

"No, you're twisting my words," he rakes his hand through his hair, "I just want you to move back home with me, that's all, I don't even know how we got here?"

"I do, it was when you told me that I should leave you with you so you can take care of me. I am not a child Christian, I'm a grown woman able to take care of herself!"

"I know you can, but I want to, can't you see that? I meant no harm in any of it."

"I know you didn't, but it's how you feel and I can't be that for you, I won't be controlled this way," I shake my head, I've grown stronger while I was apart from him, because I know six months ago I would have just cave and let him take me back. I love this man, but I need to do this with or without him, I hope he doesn't make me choose the latter.

Christian stands up and takes me in his arms, "I love you more than you will ever know, and all I endeavour in life is to keep you safe and feel loved, Anastasia."

"If you love me so much then you have to let me do this, I don't want anything more than to be able to go on this journey with you," I whisper to him with my head on his chest, Christian guides me back to the couch lays my head on his lap and plays with my hair.

"If it means this much to you. I can't go another day without you in my life knowing that you're mine," he kisses my forehead, "I would do anything for you, even this."

"Thank you," I don't know how long we stay like this, but it was over much too soon when my phone started ringing on the counter. I groan as I get up from his hold.

"Hello," I said gruffly.

"Hey Miss. St… Hey Ana, sorry to bother you, but you're a bit late for your fitting," Darla my P.A. says quietly, I think she thinks I'll take it out on her for my own negligence.

"Oh yes, I'm so sorry, I was just getting caught up, I'll be there in fifteen," I scramble to my room to put on anything that can be deemed as casual yet fashionable, Christian follows me into the room with the perplexed look in his face. I mouth to him that I'm late he quickly gets it and takes the phone from me to continue talking to Darla.

"Hey Darla is it? I'm Ana's new manager Christian Grey, I sincerely apologize for Miss Steele's tardiness it was my fault entirely, we will be there soon," he clicks off the phone.

"I would like to think you were being nice, but you did end the call without a goodbye," I shake my head at him

"That's not such a bad thing," he smiles at me as he takes a seat on my bed.

"Give me a minute," I tell him walking into my walk-closet to grab a pair of black skinny jeans, some boots, a Rolling Stones concert tee, and a vest, to make it look like I'm trying to be casual. This is what I disliked the most about this job; it's always about how I look, when really all I wanted to be is in is a pair of jeans and my chucks.

Finally stepping out of the closet I motion for him to come, I grab my bag from the living room and rush out the door, and make our way to the elevators.

"You were really fast," he muses.

"Well, when I'm late, I can't really overthink what I'm wearing," I shrug at him, he takes my hand and rubs his thumb over my fingers and kisses my knuckles, a cool tingle runs through my body.

"You look beautiful nonetheless," he whispers to me as the elevator dings and we descend to the parking lot.

The drive was short, it only took about five minutes I was glad, because I really disliked being tardy, and when we make it into their office I'm quickly ushered to their closet with Christian in tow. They show me the three outfits I was wearing, I'll be in the desert with three gowns on, one was a black Valentino slim gown, the next was a white Grecian style dress by Versace, and lastly this beautiful deep blue princess style dress with a long train by Vera Wang. I almost squealed in excitement, I got to try all three on; they were all so beautiful I wish that I could keep them.

I tried the black Valentino first, it was skin tight, but still comfortable, it was strapless mermaid gown with intricate Swarovski beading around the hems. I looked in the mirror and I looked unbelievable I didn't recognize the woman in front of me.

"You look beautiful Ana," Christian compliments me from the side of the mirror; I give him a shy smile.

Next was the Versace gown, it was so simple with large diamond clusters on the one strap, like the other it fit my like a glove, Christian eyes me greedily and shifts in his seat giving him a side smile as I walked back into the dressing room.

The last dress was the most difficult to put on, Lanie the personal shopper was having a hard time getting on not because it didn't fit, but because there was so many little things they had to do that needed more than a pair of hands. She eventually called in her assistant, Marc, since there was no space inside the change room we had to step out, Christian's eyes roamed my body, my back completely bare since they decided to try form the beginning, I was holding the dress up over my breasts with my hands. Christian glares, he probably thinks that this is completely inappropriate; I knew he would be mad that people were going to see me like this. I know I need to just smile at him and make sure he keeps cool, but when Marc shows up again and grabs my waist, Christian turns red, I know he's already fallen off the deep end.

"What the FUCK are you doing? Get your hands off her," Christian stands up and quickly walks up to him.

"Christian, he's only doing his job," I plead with him, grabbing his arm while trying to keep my other holding up the dress, "really Christian, he's just helping since they need another set of hands to get me in. Please," I plead with him.

"Honestly, I know what it might look like to you, but I'm really just doing my job," Marc says, Lanie the woman who was putting me in the dresses has kept quiet on the side, probably afraid of his outburst.

"See, Christian, I'm really sorry about this you guys he's just… uh really protective," I give them both a weak smile. Shit, Christian is detrimental to this, I turn to him, "why don't you go get a coffee?"

"No thanks, I'd rather stay," he says gruffly.

"Christian, please go and get me some coffee," I tell him sternly my eyes warning him to back off, seeing my discomfort he nods and walks out.

"I'm really sorry about that," I tell them both, sighing deeply.

"It's okay, it's not like we're not used to it," Lanie laughs nervously.

The rest of the fitting went interrupted, Christian didn't come back and I only found out that he was going to sit in the lobby when the receptionist sent in my coffee fifteen minutes later. When we finally finish and I get my clothes back on, I smile at the two of them and walk out the door, I see Christian is sitting next to Darla, he looks like he's completely uncomfortable and Darla is madly typing into her iPad. Christian notices me and smiles weakly and I return with a tight smile, he knows he's going to get a really big talking to today,


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's Note****: Hello my lovely readers thank you for all your kind reviews and input! I'm sorry that I haven't personally gotten back to you guys; I've just finished two research papers and wrote this as a break! Real life has come at me full force! Nonetheless I hope you guys enjoy this chapter and there is a bit of smut so I'm changing the rating from T-M! Love you all xo**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of E.L. James characters.**

Christian and I walked to the car after Darla told me about my schedule this week, it was definitely jam-packed; I didn't want to get into an argument with him in public so I decided the best way to have this inevitable conversation was in the safety of the car. He opens the door his expression was sullen like a reprimanded child, I laugh inwardly in total disbelief of the effect I had on this man. He opens the door and I give him a small smile when I get in to the driver seat, at least he didn't have the audacity to think that he was going to drive my car.

"Christian your outburst today was unacceptable," I told him trying to keep my anger at bay, "he was just doing his job, he wasn't trying to feel me up."

"I know I get that, but seeing his hands on you just made me see red," he shrugs placing his palms on his thighs.

"That was really embarrassing, I wouldn't do that to you if you were in a meeting, granted you'd probably never go through one of those fittings."

"I'm sorry if I embarrassed you…" I turn my face towards him seeing his sad expression melted all the anger that surfaced not too long ago, "that was the last thing I wanted to do."

"I know, I love you Christian, but you have to keep that temper in check not everyone is hitting on me and especially with this career path I'll be in many more instances like that, you'll just have to grin and bear it. Can you do that for me?" I asked as I caressed his cheek.

"We can still move back home," he looks at me expectantly, I shake my head in disbelief, "I know, I know, that's the last time I'll ask, but as for men ogling you I won't promise to not want to throw them over a cliff, but I will try not to lose my cool the next time it happens."

"That's all I ask," I smile at him as I lean over and give him a quick kiss on his cheek.

He gives me a wicked grin, "Drive," a warm tingle shoots up my spine I know that look, I start the ignition and start driving like a maniac back to my place.

When we walked through the door I let out a big sigh, he grabs me from behind and nuzzles my hair, "You're so beautiful."

"I missed you."

"I missed you more, baby," he growls as he grabs and turns me around so I'm facing him, then pins me to the wall and started kissing me fervently. His tongue massaging and flicking my tongue consequently making my panties instantly wet I missed this, but furthermore I missed him. He began licking my earlobes down to my neck as my head rolls back in ecstasy. I hitch my left leg around him then my right until I'm straddling him, I could feel his erection pressing into my stomach. My arousal intensifies I wanted to feel his body pressed up against mine, I started grinding my hips on him and I get a deep moan of approval. I started unbuttoning his shirt, but he grabs my hands and tells me to stop.

"Get undressed and meet me in your office," he commands and an excited thrill tingles throughout my body, the anticipation of what I've missed all of these long celibate months made me deeply excited for what was about to happen.

"Yes, sir," I reply with my head downcast as I made my way to the study to undress. When I'm completely naked except for my lingerie I sit in the kneeling position and kept my head downcast, I can hear his soft footsteps come into the room and I take in a huge breath.

"It's good to see that you haven't forgotten," he says sternly and I get further aroused, "stand Ana, you've been very bad, with that outburst today and for leaving, you need to be punished."

"Sir."

"I will hit you 20 times with my hand, is that understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Do you remember the safe words?"

"Yes, sir yellow and red."

"Good girl," I catch glance at him and I could see the passion in his eyes, "take off your underwear."

"Yes, sir," I reply as I take off my sopping wet panties and leave them on the floor.

He takes a seat of the large chair and tells me to bend over on his legs, "I want you to count, Ana."

"Yes, sir," I say as I lie over his legs, my ass was in the air and he was caressing it. Slap, "One!" Slap! "Two." my eyes began to water at twelve not wanting to disappoint him I didn't want to safe word, I forgot how much pleasure I got from the pain, I began to writhe under him, but he held me down with his arm. He finally reaches twenty and I fall limp on him.

"You're such a good girl Ana," I kept my eyes down a few moments pass, "Ana look at me," I do as I'm told and he gives me a smile, "I've missed you so much," with that he kisses sweetly.

He picks me up from the floor and pins me onto the wall, licking and sucking on my nipples, he growls as he fingers my already wet slit, "I want you," I whimper.

"As do I," he quickly unzips his pants and his large erection comes out and my excitement rises to new heights. He strokes himself a couple of times until he quickly slams into me, I grind my hips as I bite his lower lip. I moan completely lost in the moment as I reach my climax, he puts me down and gets on his knees and begins to lick me clean, "Fuck Ana you taste so good."

I moan again as my legs wrap around his shoulders, I couldn't help tighten my legs around him, he began rubbing my clit as he entered me with his tongue making me come all over again, "Bend over the desk," he commands.

I do as I'm told as he slams into me from behind, one hand is tugging on my hair and the other is kneading my breasts, I was lost, I didn't know where he started and I ended, I was in complete euphoria feeling his entirety inside me. We both reach our climax; he was panting behind me as he kisses my back, "You're so god-damn beautiful Ana."

"Let me taste you," I say to him as I turn myself around and wrap my arms around his neck he nods as I kiss his temple, his lips, then up to his ears sucking and biting on them lightly, "I love you, Christian," I whisper as I get down on my knees and take the rest of his pants off, he was only at half mast, but getting it fully there wasn't very hard at all.

I sat him down and settled between his legs; grabbing him I started slowly running my hand up and down him as I put his balls in my mouth. I flicked his head with my tongue tasting his pre-cum, I savoured the taste of him, I started working my way down, grazing him with my teeth as I hum with him completely inside. He jerks up and slams into the back of my throat, I take him out and run my tongue all over his length, goddamn was this man big. His head lolls back and he grabs my hair, I begin to move faster taking all of him in his hips began moving into my mouth.

"Shit, Ana," he moans, "fuck… baby I'm going to come."

Those words made me go harder bobbing my head faster onto him until I feel a harder tug on my hair and I feel 4 large squirts down my throat, I smile at him.

"Baby, that was wow…" he begins to say.

"I know," I smile at him as I get up and gather my clothes and walk out the door so he can get a perfect view of my ass.

When he finally emerges from the study he grabs me from behind and kisses me, "Thanks for blowing my mind."

"Right back at you," I smile at him, "I have to go workout now, will you be okay to hang out here?"

"I think so, I'll be going back to my hotel to freshen up," he smiles at me, "where are you working out?"

"In the building, my trainer comes to the gym here so I don't have to leave."

"That's convenient," he says as he eyes me, I know he wants to say something else, but he's smarter than that.

"No Christian, he's never seen my place," I reassure him and his face immediately relaxes, "I told you I haven't been with anyone since I left."

"I know, but you know I get jealous."

"I'm aware," I say softly as I kiss him chastely, "I got to go, see you in a bit, maybe we can have dinner somewhere?"

"Great, I'll pick you up at 6 okay?"

"Why don't you stay here?"

"Uh I didn't think that was an option."

"It is now," I say as I give him another kiss and walk out the door.

My workouts are already excruciating, but especially now since I've just been doing the dirty with Christian, we had to running drills and some weights, it didn't seem so bad initially, but really I hate working out as it is so this is was twice as bad. When we finally finished I trudged back up to my apartment to get ready for dinner, I get into the shower quickly and washed away everything from today's interesting adventures. When I got out I got ready in simple dark blue halter dress and some strappy summer wedges, I put on minimal make-up and waited for Christian to come back.

When he finally arrives he's already in his suit and that silver tie that I love so much, "Ready?"

"Yes, I'm starving," I smile as he gives me a kiss, he grabs my hand and leads me to the lobby, "why is there such a commotion out there?"

"Not sure," he looks worried. When we reach the large doors I could see that they were the paparazzi, how strange, I've never had this problem before, someone famous is probably staying here too. I sigh, why couldn't they just leave people alone?

We step out of the building thinking that it wasn't us that they were waiting for, but boy were we wrong, the moment my foot hit the pavement the cameras began clicking, Taylor and Sawyer quickly makes a path for us to get through as Christian wraps a protective arm around me, their yelling was inaudible and I quickly learnt to zone them out. I kept my head down until we reached the black SUV

"What was that all about?" I asked puzzled.

"Didn't you hear? They wanted to know about you," Christian laughs lightly, "you're famous now."

"I'm not, they're just annoying piranhas," I shrug.

We quickly decided to enter Yamishiro from the back entrance, how did they find out about us so quickly? I send Carlos a quick email about the craziness outside.

"That was intense," I said as we finally settled down to eat.

"If that continues to happen we're going to get you security as soon as possible," Christian turns into business mode, shit is this how it's going to be like with him as my manager?

"Can we both just relax?" I ask, "we're having dinner together for the first time in six months, I don't know about you but I'd like to play catch up."

"Ana, this is a serious concern, you can't be running around L.A. unprotected, I need to call Taylor."

"But..."

"No, Ana, this was a wake up call, what if I wasn't there and they were outside, what would you do? They're vultures."

"I understand," I huff.

"Excuse me for a moment," he says as he gets up and talks to Taylor.

A few minutes pass and I can hear a slight murmur of people around I quickly look back at my phone 6:33 pm, it was early, I was just really nervous about this whole thing with Christian as my manager and this new celebrity status. Carlos hasn't replied to my email, I'll give him until tonight, he's usually pretty good with things like that.

"Ahem. Sorry," a really tall and lanky guy with a short voluptuous girl is standing in front of the table.

"HI, sorry?" I asked a little apprehensive, what could they possibly want?

"Sorry to bother you, but you're Ana Steele right?" The girl asks in a chirpy voice.

"Uh yes… Why do you ask?" I look at them puzzled.

"We love you, my name is Sam and this is my boyfriend Eddie," she smiles at me.

"Pleased to meet you," I say as I stand and shake their hands.

"You're more beautiful in real life!" Exclaims Sam.

I blush, "Thank you, you're a pretty thing yourself," I smile at her, "what can I do for you guys?"

"We just wanted to say Hello, get a picture with you, and maybe an autograph?" Eddie answers.

"I think I can do that!" I smile at them both, Eddie takes a picture of Sam and I and then we ask a waiter to take a picture of the three of us. I also give them a my napkin I wrote on, Eddie recommended his back, but I thought it would have been highly inappropriate.

"Excuse me," Christian comes back.

"Oh hey Christian, this is Eddie and Sam they just came to say hi, this is my boyfriend Christian," I smile as he shakes both of their hands and takes a seat.

"We've seen you in everything you've been and I can't wait for your next film, you're an amazing actress!" Sam squeals.

"Well thank you," I smile back at her, "well if you'll excuse us, I have some things to talk about with Christian. Have a good night you two."

"Yes, you too thank you for seeing us!" Sam squeals again and gives me a hug.

When they've finally disappeared Christian lets out a deep sigh, "No peace."

"Christian you could have been nicer," I tell him.

"Well they came up to our table to disrupt dinner, do they not see we were on a date?"

"Really? You left to make a phone call," I cock an eyebrow at him.

"Touché, let's just enjoy each other's company, I really did miss you," he smiles at me and grabs my hand across the table.

"I love you Mr. Grey," I say as I lean in closer to him, I'm finally at home and I can relax the muscles that have been so tense all this time.

"I love you _Miss_ Steele," he answers.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: **I hope you guys enjoy this, I'm sorry for the late update, please, please review. I love hearing what your thoughts are and they make me smile! ;) I'll try to update this weekend again! xo

"_I don't love you anymore Christian, its over," I say quietly._

"_You said you'd never leave, you said you loved me," Christian pleads._

"_No, who could love you?" I spat out word after word of scripted lines fed to me by Elena; it broke my heart to see his face crumble._

"_Ana, please I'm sorry but please don't give up on me," he begs on his knees as he grabs my legs, but I pull away from him. _

"_You will never be enough."_

"_No…" he whispers as he gets into the kneeling position, hands on his thighs, head bent down; he was submitting to me._

_My breath hitches I couldn't deal with the sight of him like this when all I wanted to do was run to him and make him see that I love you and that this was all a ruse, but the smarter part of my brain told me to let him go; it was for the best. I turn away from him heading for the elevator with one final look at my fifty alone in the middle of the grand room my heart ached and shattered, "I love you," I whispered as I ran out of Escala letting my tears run freely._

I wake up in a cold sweat my nightmare was still in my system and sheen of cold sweat on my forehead; I woke up disoriented unbeknownst to me where I was. I looked around the room trying to get my bearings, that same recurring nightmare that has plagued my mind for months was still the main attraction in my subconscious, I look at my alarm clock on the bed side table it was 4:09 am I need to get back to sleep or I will have a really terrible day tomorrow. I look turn my head to see a sleeping Christian lying face down on the bed, then all the events of yesterday came crashing down, Christian is here. He's in my bed. We made love in this bed. Happy thoughts filled me as I lie back turning to face him and lightly touch his hair and giving him light kisses on his face, I wish I could touch him. He moves around a bit, but stills immediately, a cold dread creeps throughout my body, what if Elena found out about us? What will she do? That Taiwan deal has already been made, but what if she still has tricks up her sleeve and then her ex-husband... I need to protect Christian. After last night I don't think I could leave him again that would truly break me. I look at my phone and read through my messages hoping I'll be able to calm down just a bit, there were a few from Carlos, Jane, and Darla, but there was an unknown sender that didn't get immediately put into my junk mail.

**From**: lexicon56  
**Subject**: Naughty Ana tsk tsk  
**Date**: 3 June, 2012 1:04 AM PDT  
**To**: anasteele

Think you could get away that easily? I have eyes and ears everywhere Ana you're never alone.  
_

After re-reading the message over and over again my heart rate continues to peek until I'm hyperventilating having a full-blown panic attack. I tried to normalize my breathing, but all I could see was Christian losing everything because of me, how did she find me so easily? How did she find out so quickly, even if they did follow us tonight, those pictures couldn't have been uploaded already? I can't let her take everything from me again, but I wouldn't even know where to begin trying to take her down.

"Baby, what's wrong?" Christian wakes up visibly alarmed by my erratic breathing, "baby you have to tell me what's wrong."

"Elena," I say as he rubs my back I show him the email and he becomes irate.

"Has this been happening frequently?" his voice ragged.

"First time in months," I breathed out as he takes me into his arms.

"You're going to be fine, no one is going to harm you."

"I'm not afraid for myself, it's you I'm worried about," I tell him, "You'll lose everything."

"Anastasia, are we on this again? She's not very powerful and neither of them have any clout in the business world; also its just money nothing would be worse than losing you."

"You've worked hard for it I can't let you throw all those years of hard work down the drain for me."

"Ana I have various offshore accounts, they wouldn't be able to take anything substantial away, so please let's just go back to bed you have an early morning," he whispers in my ear as he nuzzles me.

"Alright," I huff and cuddle my back further into him.

"Plus we have your booming career, I think we can survive," he teases as he holds me close to him tighter, "go to sleep baby."

"All right, goodnight."

"Sweet dreams beautiful."

The next morning I have had absolutely no sleep, I woke every half hour from dreams that escalated further into the impossible to absolutely frightening, my imagination was getting the best of me. I was thankful when the sun started streaming into the room filling it with light I looked at my clock 6:58 am, I can finally get ready for my table read and start packing for my trip back home, then I have a Bulova event that I need to attend tonight. Christian stirs next to me finally waking.

"Good morning baby," he gives me goofy smile.

"Good morning," I said huskily, I straddled his hips careful not to touch him but the headboard instead; I could feel him hard behind me, which only pushed my arousal further.

"Ana…" he exhales as I grind myself further into him, he quickly flips me over and runs his hands under my shirt and over the sides of my body cupping my breasts. He started twisting and kneading them, he takes off my shirt completely exposing myself fully to him. He takes my left nipple into his mouth as he squeezes the right then starts to flick each erect nipple alternating every time. I let out a groan of satisfaction; he gets off of me, grabs my hips and pulls me towards him with my legs are dangling off the bed. Christian sticks two fingers into me as his thumb rubs around my clit. I let out a gasp as I begin to grind onto his hand. "Baby don't come," he says as he takes his fingers out and licks them, in one fluid movement he's inside me thrusting, my legs wrap around his torso his hands on my hips as he thrusts; you could hear our body slapping and the my wetness with each deep thrust. My back arches towards him and he takes a hand off my hip and then runs it over my body towards me face he puts his fingers into my mouth and I start sucking on them. He continues to pump into me, but I can't hold it anymore my body ached to climax.

"Chrisitan…" I gasp.

He licks my lips sticking his tongue into my mouth, "Come for me baby."

Those words were my undoing as I convulsed around him my hips tightened my hold and soon he climaxed inside me.

"Fuck," I said as he goes limp on top of me.

"You're amazing," he states as he rolls off of me to catches his breath.

"We have to get ready, my table read is at 8:15 and its…" I look at the clock, "7:15. We have to get ready."

He laughs, "Okay how long of a drive down to west Hollywood?"

"From here probably 31 minutes if traffic isn't too bad, but it's L.A. traffic is always bad," I said as I ran to the washroom with Christian at my heals.

"Why did you pick Pacific Palisades if all your work is out in Hollywood?"

"Ben Affleck lives a block away from me, if it's good enough for him then it's good enough for me," I give him a sweet smile.

"Ben Affleck?"

I stop myself before I roll my eyes and get reprimanded, "You know the actor?"

"Has he hit on you?" he asked seriously.

I give him a quizzical look, "Christian, he's married with kids or maybe one, not sure, but he's married!"

"So? That hasn't stopped anyone before."

"I've never met him Christian, he lives in that big mansion, and I live in a condo our paths would not ever intersect." I know he wasn't satisfied with that answer, but he dropped the subject nonetheless.

We step into the shower and we quickly get ready, we didn't have any time to waste, but Christian did try a few tricks while he was washing my back. When we finally got ready, I was wearing skinny jeans, gladiator sandals, a tiered royal blue top, and a cropped leather jacket. When we went down to the lobby Taylor was waiting for us, as were Sawyer, and two other men I've never met.

"Good morning, Mr. Grey, Miss Steele," Taylor nods to us.

"Taylor," Christian nods back to him.

"Hi, Taylor, how are you this morning?"

"Good Ma'am," he answers briskly.

"Hi Sawyer," I wave at him and he gives me slight nod, so professional it hurts.

"May I introduce Chon and Chris," Taylor motions his hands to the other two guys, "these two are your new security detail."

"What!" I looked shocked then I turn to Christian in disbelief, "what is this?"

"Your security detail," he says nonchalantly.

"Christian what the hell," I begin to fume, "you didn't discuss this with me."

"I did, I told you that you needed security," he says sternly.

"Yes you did, but you never said that it would be the very next day."

"Ana, you're crazy if you think that I'll let you walk around L.A. unguarded with those out there," he motions to the doors, "I told you that you needed security, I'm your manager you don't have a say in the matter."

I look at him firmly, "I don't need security all the time, and I'll look like I hired them for show!"

"I'm not talking about this anymore Ana, they're staying and that's final," he growls.

"Fine, but this conversation isn't over," I walk away angry.

We drive to West Hollywood where my table read was, we were escorted to a large room with long tables connected in a circle, I quickly found my name and placed my things on the chair, Christian and Taylor were both sitting behind at one of the couches in the room. Christian was not happy that I didn't get breakfast, so he sent Sawyer to get me some coffee and a muffin, he returns quickly dropping it by at my table then walking out of the room where Chon and Chris were waiting for him. I quickly look through my phone, I had a few texts and missed phone calls, I've yet to read Carlos reply to my erratic email from last night. We were going to be late today, but somehow Taylor was able to drive like a maniac and still able to keep California traffic laws.

I started to get comfortable and I read the package in front of me, my character bio, and the script was laid out neatly. Soon the seats started filling up, a bunch of actors were all seated at the table, the director of Jack was here Liam Andre, producers, and the screenwriter was here too. This movie is a big deal, it's centred on my character Scar and the main actor's character Riley, but the male lead has yet to arrive. Ten minutes later Samuel Somers arrived, he was the only one missing at the table, the guy was handsome dark hair, clear blue eyes, tall, and built. I actually had a crush on him when he used to have a minor role in a vampire series that I used to watch a few years back, he was good looking and he knew it, I wonder how Christian will react to him. I cross my legs under the table and wait to start.

He wore dark sunglasses, black jeans, white t-shirt, and black leather jacket that he had kept on and his floppy hair was unkempt it looked like he had just woken up. God his whole entity screamed arrogance. I turn to face Christian and gave him a small smile as we began reading through the script. Samuel did not speak nor look at me as the hours passed. On our first break he quickly got on his phone and talked to someone before I could even say hello to him, I walked up to Christian and Taylor, we only had an hour until we had to start again so we decided to have lunch, my stomach was grumbling. We decided to go to BLT Steak on the car ride over it was still rather icy between the two of us, but it was really my fault for freaking out on him so to settle our differences, I scooted over next to him to grab his hand and lay my head on his shoulder.

"I'm sorry for freaking out," I whispered so the two in front wouldn't hear.

"It's okay," he says as he kisses the top of my head. I could feel his phone vibrating in his pocket as he goes to grab it, "Grey," he barks. The man on the other end says something that makes Christian grimace, "make sure that happens."

I look up at him a little worried, Christian's body tensed, "What's wrong" I mouthed to him."\

"I'll book it immediately," his answer brusque, then hangs up.

"What's wrong?" the worry apparent in my voice.

"There have been threats made to GEH and to my family," he huffs.

"What? Who?" I asked becoming frantic, as I hold onto him tighter.

"I have to go home settle this shit, there was a breech in our security system, someone was trying to hack it and give us a virus that would in turn crash the entire network. We were lucky that we caught it, but there's definitely a mole, probably in IT itself."

"Elena," I sigh under my breath.

"Don't worry Ana, I'll deal with this," he tries to reassure me, "Taylor after we drop Ana back off make the necessary arrangements to get us back to Seattle."

"Yes sir," Taylor answers.

"I'm sorry Ana, I will have to leave after lunch."

"Of course," I give him a small smile.

He reaches for my hand and kisses it, "I don't regret ever coming to get you."

"I know," I say trying to put on a brave face. There was a threat to the Grey's too will she ever stop? The guilt I was trying to hold at bay was suddenly crashing into me


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's Note**: Here's another update I hope you guys enjoy! Please leave a review to let me know what you think. Xo

My brain is going a hundred miles a minute, lunch was a quiet affair and it ended too soon, Christian was busy on his phone contacting whoever he needed to get his work in order and the security heightened for the Grey's. I could see the worry in his face he wanted to get out of here and deal with this Elena problem, but in the back of my mind I know she has a network of anti-Christian minded people serving her. I hate that bitch.

"Ana, let's go," I zone back in to the current conversation, "we have to go baby."

"Okay," I said sadly.

"I'll be back as soon as I get this shit sorted, I just need to figure this out before it gets out of hand," Christian reassures me as we drive back to the table read.

"I love you, Christian," I say as he picks me up and sets me onto his lap and wraps me in his arms.

"I love you too, Ana," he says as he kisses me, "I'm going to miss you."

"Me too," I said sadly, "but take care of your business and your family, I'll be waiting here and I'll be with you next week, okay?"

"I'm counting on it," he gives me a wicked smile. Oh fifty.

We arrive back before it was time to start again; we sat in the car until it was time to leave. I was going to miss him so much after being together an entire day in after being so far away for so long. My favourite person was being ripped away from me… because of Elena. If I could do something to stop her I would, I wish that I could, but I know Christian would not be pleased to see me hurt in the crossfire. I know that he feels that this was his entire fault, but I've tried to reassure him in not so many words that my life would not be the same if we had never met.

Walking into the room Samuel is already sitting looking bored out of his mind to be back here, this does not bode well for our work relationship. I sat back down in my seat and drank from the fresh bottle of water that was sitting next to my script; Sawyer and Chon accompanied me in the room while Chris sat outside on guard.

"You bring a lot of security, princess," Samuel states looking cocky in his seat making me raise an eyebrow at him, "where are the other two?"

"I'll let that one slide, princess is not a very endearing nickname so please don't call me that again," I say flatly completely ignoring the rest of his question.

"Awe not your cup of tea? Who brings five men to a table read?" he cocks an eyebrow at me.

"I'm pretty sure there's only two in here," I inform him becoming quite annoyed.

"Not including the two from this morning and the guy outside, so where's the other two?"

"One was my manager and the other was his security, they're both gone to sort out some business."

"The way that guy looked at you makes him seem more like a boyfriend than a manager," he says sardonically.

"Not that its any of your business who he is to me, but he happens to also be my," I give him a tight smile and turn my head away from him.

"Ah I knew it business with pleasure never a good mix," he laughs while flipping through his script. I cross my arms beginning to get impatient with the whole thing and wanted nothing more than to just finish off and get ready for that damned photo shoot. I looked over at my phone and decided that I needed to look busy so I decided to answer Carlos' emails to me.

From: Carlos del Vecchio  
Subject: Re: Paps outside?  
Date: 2 June, 2012 11:34 PM PDT  
To: Anastasia Steele

Well darling that answer to your question is quite simple Jane and I were talking about spicing up your life a bit... Don't' be too mad it's all in good fun. There are tons of people wanting to get a piece of you now we're letting them, how's Christian I hope you haven't given the man too much strife. We want you to look like an open book, if they Google you they get everything… EVERYTHING so don't fret my little love bug, its all for the best.

Ciao,  
Carlos

That bastard, he's been leaking my whereabouts to the paps, fuck I didn't sign up for this, I groan out loud in frustration that causes Samuel to look at me in surprise. Great! Now he probably think I'm crazy. After we finished for the day about an hour or so later we began packing up, but not before Samuel stops me by grabbing my arm getting up from my chair. Everyone was already walking out of the room and I saw Chris look inside expectantly, seeing this Sawyer and Chon rush towards us and grab him before he could grab hold of me again.

"Can you tell your goons to back off?" Samuel says with disdain in his voice.

"Sawyer he's not a threat," I smile at the two in appreciation, they both nod and take a few steps back leaving us some room to talk freely, "sorry about that."

"I would say it's okay, but its not, just wanted to say that sorry for being rude back there," Samuel shrugs and my mouth drops to the floor the guy was actually apologizing.

"Thanks, I guess, its okay new situations make me nervous too," I give him a warm smile.

"Who says I was nervous?" he eyes me.

"Uh… well I mean I was just thinking… that was why you were rude… I mean I get really quiet in new environments," I stutter trying to get an intelligent sentence successfully out of my mouth.

"Well I'm not fucking nervous," he yells, "I've been doing this longer than you so before you get all high and mighty fucking remember that. I don't get nervous at table fucking reads." Hearing the raised voices Sawyer and Chon are at my side once more he eyes the three of us murderously, "Oh great, fucking filming with you is going to be just fucking fantastic."

Having about as much of verbal diarrhea from the man I began my angry retort, "What is wrong with you? You're like a child!" I scoff at him, "I don't know who raised you, but you really need to start acting differently towards people, you can't just start swearing at anyone as you please!" with that I turn and walked out the door with the two in tow, leaving the very disgruntled man alone in the room. _Fucking asshole_.

When we finally make it out to the cars I get the entire back seat of the town car then we drive down to El Matador beach in Malibu for the photo-shoot, it was a short drive and we were able to make it by 2:30 pm. Shortly after we arrived I was ushered into hair and make-up, then into my first outfitthe shoot was a beach theme so lots of swimsuits to choose from after a long debate on which four we would use we narrowed it down to a red Celine by Eclairee one piece that had triangular cloth from my base of neck to my navel. The next one was a white knit one piece halter by Ralph Lauren it covered only my breasts and my navel, but left my hips, back, and sides completely bare, paired with a jean jacket, then crème colour ruffled two piece by Lanvin, finally there was black embellished cut out one piece by Norma Kamali Jorge with a leather jacket. The first set of pictures were of me walking on the shore splashing along in my white Ralph Lauren suit, then we took pictures of me in the water and around the entrance of the cave in my red bathing suit, then in the ruffled two piece inside the cave, finally the last shots of the day was during the sunset sitting on top of a cliff in the black one piece, they caught the sun and myself; it looked like I was glowing. I had a chance to look at the shots and I was stunned on how beautiful the location was and being able to capture it on film even without Photoshop the pictures were perfect.

The sun had already set and I was freezing especially in the spring weather, I was glad I was wrapped up in a huge parka while off set. I will definitely take Christian to this beach soon it was spectacular. If he were her today, knowing him he would probably be demanding to have a change of location and have a completely different photo-shoot, he would definitely have complained about me being cold and the outfits I was to wear, I'm almost glad I could do this without him. When I got back to my trailer to get ready for dinner with my interviewer, Darla was already gearing up to go she needed to run down my schedule this weekend and all the things I hate remembering. Tomorrow I have phone interview from Australia Times then another table read, and finally a fitting for the movie, this weekend was going to be filled with a bunch of interviews and late night talk shows.

When I finally got ready for my dinner I dried my hair and had it in big curls for tonight's event and wore a simple maxi dress so it would be easier to get ready after dinner. When we pull up at the Carbon Beach Club I met by Laura Smith who was interviewing me during this dinner, we ordered some drinks while I waited for my appetizer, she opted out because she was trying to watch my figure, I frowned a little when she said this because I don't think she actually needs to lose any weight she looked amazing.  
When my crab dip arrived I dug in quickly I offered her some, but still she declined, shrugging she began asking me questions about my life and my quick rise into Hollywood's A-list. When our entrees arrived I had the halibut with rice pilaf and mixed veggies and Lauren had a mixed salad, boring. Sawyer and the others including Darla all sat eating a few tables behind us, every so often I would see them eyeing our table. The paparazzi was not a problem tonight it seems, I made a phone call to Christian explaining what Carlos and Jane had done, he was none too pleased. The two of them were going to get a strict talking to from him, which I was sort of glad about.

"_Hey Christian how was your flight?" I asked while getting ready for dinner._

"_It was good, how as your photo-shoot?" he asked._

"_It went well actually, just about to get ready for dinner, I wish you were here," I pouted just as I was fixing my make-up as the woman was curling my hair._

"_Me too baby," he sighs I could feel the tension from here._

"_So the pap situation is all because of Carlos and Jane, they pretty much want me to be everywhere and accessible to everyone," I sigh._

"_Seriously? That's their brilliant plan? I'll talk to them about it, but we will definitely keep your personal life as private as we can under the circumstances," he promised._

"_Good, I'm happy to hear that I don't really want to be chased down while driving in L.A.," I shudder, changing the subject I decided to try and get some information out of Christian, "have you made a any new discoveries?" I asked hopeful._

"_No," he groaned, "we have a few leads, but nothing concrete, we need to collect more substantial evidence."_

"_Well I want to help anyway I can," I tell him softly._

"_No, Ana, this is my problem I want you far away form this."_

"_What the hell Christian!" I exclaim, then quickly dropped my voice to a mere whisper seeing the people were still around me, "this was my fault I'm going to help you fix this."_

"_No! That's that Anastasia, there's no need for you to get into this, I don't even want you to come here next week."_

"_What! No, you can't stop me," I say instantly._

"_Yes I can, I can fill up your entire schedule," he says smugly._

"_Christian don't you dare. It's not only you I'm coming to see!"_

"_What I say goes."_

"_Really?" I asked vehemence evident in my voice._

"_Yes, you stay there away from all of this."_

"_Christian, you are not the boss of me and you don't dictate my life. I'm not some little girl unable to take care of myself," I yell into the phone, "have a goodnight Christian," I say as I end the call and throw my phone at the bottom of my bag. I was fuming._

Remembering that annoying conversation reignited my anger again, my clouded thoughts were soon interrupted by Lauren who was calling my name repeatedly.

"I'm so sorry," I begin embarrassed by my actions, "long day."

"It's okay, well let's dig in," she says brightly. The interview went by quickly she had asked me generic questions about my life so I was able to give her answers easily, soon dinner was over and I was ushered away to the hotel near the Bulova event to get ready. Reaching my room I found five inch black peep toe Christian Louboutin pumps, a skin tight red mini-dress by Lavin, accented with a simple gold bracelet and black clutch. I was ready by 9:30 pm, I quickly made my way down to the limo Sawyer, Darla, and myself were riding in, Chon and Chris were both going to ride behind in their own car. Once we arrive a the event cameras began flashing as soon as my door opened and Sawyer stepped out first in a black suit followed by myself and then Darla. I was immediately hounded by the questions and the flashing cameras I couldn't see anyone in front of me, but all I could hear was the photographers screaming for a picture, I probably was on the red carpet for a solid twenty minutes. When we finally entered the main room I was quickly jumped on by Janice a new friend I made while filming Jack, she was a sweetheart. Throughout the night I took pictures, mingled, and about forty minutes later I finally was able to sit at a table, plopping myself down with Darla next to me I finally was able to rest my feet an hour in these things and I was ready to throw in the towel. The night passes by without any incidents thankfully and by 11:30 pm I was ready to call it a night, Sawyer motioned for the other two to follow us to the exit. As we manoeuvred our way successfully through the crowd I unexpectedly felt a hard tug on my arm forcing me to turn around and become face to face with my antagonist. It was Samuel.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's Note: **Hello my beautiful people, life has caught up with me and October has not been very kind to my writing endeavours. There has been birthday every week this whole month and its been a midterm/ group project/ papers type of month. Well I hope you all enjoy this instalment! Please Review! Review! Review! :)

**Part 8**

"What the fuck Samuel, let go," I yell over the crowd while a bunch of photographers began crowding around us taking multiple pictures of our interaction.

"Give me a second, princess," he laughs then he gives me this strange look and within one swift move he had one hand on the back of my head and the other around my waste, I didn't realize what he was doing until he was only an inch away from me as I tried to squirm out of his reach he kisses me, the cameras started furiously flashing, Sawyer finally made his way back to us and pulled him off while Chon takes me away immediately through the crowd. I didn't turn back to see what was happening, I just tried to get away as fast as I could, I really hope those pictures portrayed some semblance of the truth. We all scramble into our vehicles and as soon as I was safe in the confines of dark I bury my face and my hands, I was so angry that he did that all for a few pictures, what was he playing at? I was furious; the man not even uttering one pleasant word to me somehow thinks it's permissible to kiss me? Of all the public stunts to pull he does that, I hope Christian is awake when I get home I really don't want him to go completely crazy if he sees it online tomorrow morning before I had a chance to tell him. When we finally make it back to my place I quickly get ready to go to sleep, changing into an old t-shirt and jumping into bed, but before I could become comfortable my phone starts ringing. Sweetest Taboo by Sade plays in my phone, he's knows.

"Hi, Christian," I say quietly.

"Hello, Anastasia, would you like to tell me something?" he asks I can tell he was trying to hold his anger at bay.

"Uh… I was about to call you actually, Christian, Samuel tried to… I mean he kissed me tonight," I reply.

"Is there anything going on between you? I saw the headlines and his fucking hands all over you."

"I'm sorry, he just grabbed me, Sawyer can attest to it! I promise we were on our way out when he pulled me back," I know how this might look.

"I could kill that guy," he seethes.

"I know, I'm really sorry, I honestly didn't mean for any of that to happen."

"I believe you," he sighs deeply.

"How did you find it so fast?"

"I have you on Google alert," he answers a little too quiet for the Christian that I know.

I couldn't help but giggle, I quickly grab my laptop from my desk and run back to bed, searching my name I found the incriminating pictures posted 15 minutes ago. I gasp, that kissed looked passionate, oh Christian; I couldn't imagine seeing those if I were him. The headlines were all practically the same: "New love?" or "Sexy co-stars find love on set?". Most of them were all asking when it all started and how long we had been keeping it a secret. That was why he pulled it to make headlines, fucking asshole. I don't want to go to that damned table reading now, fuck that guy, this was not how I wanted to portrayed!

"I'm really sorry Christian, I love you."

"I know, I love you too, I want to fly down there."

"You can't," I say flatly.

He groans, "I miss you."

"Miss you too… so have you changed your mind about my visit up there?"

"No," he says flatly, "you can visit your family, but absolutely not here to GEH, I need you safe."

I groan in objection, "You're insufferable, I'm going to bed, have a goodnight, I love you."

"I love you too, sleep well beautiful," he says but lingers on the phone.

"Hang up Mr. Grey," I laugh softly.

"All right, goodnight," he laughs then hangs up.

I breathed a sigh of relief and lied in bed, I was physically and emotionally drained from this day feeling like I've been on a constant seesaw, I don't even know how I'm going to deal with the Samuel problem and having to deal with inevitable awkward moments that will ensue. I know Carlos will want to meet with me soon and I want to set all of this straight, it was so frustrating how Samuel can be so blasé about this. I look at my side desk alarm clock it was 12:45 am, I close my eyes and hope for sleep, but it took a good hour until I actually drifted off. I was restless throughout the night, I woke up every few hours, I didn't know if it was from the stress of work or the fact that Elena problem is still very much running rampant.  
At 7:00 am I finally gave up on getting a full cycle of REM sleep, groggily getting out of bed I made my way to the bathroom and into the shower. The warm cascading water was like waterfall, the heat from the shower made the entire room fog up almost instantly relaxing my muscles, I can't believe that I'll be sitting next to that prick for a six hours again, douchebag. When I finally got out of the shower and dried off, I dressed in a floral maxi dress, a cropped jean jacket, a fedora, and some sandals. I left my hair air dry so it will be wavy, but still spritzing my locks with leave-in conditioner so it would still be soft and shiny. I called Carlos on my way down to the main lobby to meet with Darla, Sawyer, and the rest of the security team, it went to his voicemail after a few rings, probably because he was still out or completely dead from last night's debauchery.  
I left him a voicemail, "Hey Carlos, you probably haven't heard about the Samuel thing from last night, but the bastard kissed me in front of the papz, now all of the news outlets have been saying it's "New love" or what have you. I want this to get fixed; I do not want to be tied to him any way shape or form. Call me at around noon, that's probably when we'll get our lunch, bye," I really don't want this to get out of hand and I've seen this type of thing spiral into something a lot more sinister.  
When I finally got down to meet them I was quickly ushered through the lobby and out the door, there seem to be a larger group outside taking pictures they were all asking about Samuel, we quickly ran away to the waiting car, I think we need to start coming from the garage instead of the lobby even though exiting from the front would be much better time-wise. This will add another five minutes from my morning commute, needing to go through all the security and driving through the expansive garage, then having to drive around the complex rather than driving through it. When we finally were situated into the car we drove fast to get down to Hollywood on time.  
Our car arrives a minute or so behind Chon and Alex's, since they were the ones who acted as a sort of decoy while we got out behind the building. I don't know how this all happened, when did I suddenly shot up to paparazzi status, I missed being a nobody who was able to walk around without being noticed. I sigh as we walk in to the elevator, sometimes this was fun, but at times I wanted to just run back home and stay in the confines of my comfort zone.  
Today, only Sawyer in the room with me and the rest of them sat outside, I said hello to most of the cast, but it seemed that a couple of the women who were playing minor roles were smirking at me and ignoring my greetings. Of course there were mean girls. I decide to send Christian a text informing him where I was and asking how he was today, my phone immediately starts ringing.

"Hi," I said cheering up quite a bit.

"Hey baby, sorry if I've been a bit abrasive," he says huskily.

"It's okay, I understand, so how's it going?"

"It's going well, I'm just going into meeting now, but I wanted to hear your voice before I start another gruelling day," he laughs softly.

"Well my day probably won't bode too well, I have to sit next to the he-devil all day," I laugh.

"He better not try anything," he warns, but I know he's trying to be as jovial as he can.

"I know, I'm pretty sure Sawyer would break his arm before he even gets another touch in," I try to reassure my ever controlling fifty.

"Good, that's what he's there for."

I laugh it off trying to pretend he didn't actually mean it, "I'll report back if…" I begin but trail off because Mr. Prick has just sat himself down next to me giving me a huge grin.

"Hey Princess," Samuel says as he smiles.

I raise an eyebrow at him and try to continue my conversation with Christian he asks since I did trail off at the end, "Was that him?"

"Unfortunately," I sigh, "who is your meeting with?"

"Right now it's with some of the reps from Taiwan, basically crunching numbers and what not. Then, I have another meeting with Welch and his associates…" he hesitates, I think he knows I will try to worm my way into coming up there, "about our little problem."

I sigh heavily, "You know it's never a good thing to keep me in the dark about this," usually I would put up a harder fight, but I have a room full of people and Mr. Prick sitting right next to me, Christian needs to let me in, maybe not help, but actually treat me as his equal. I don't need him sheltering me from the evils of the world; sometimes he can be so frustrating, but this was neither the time nor the place to deal with our problems.  
"I'm only doing what's best Ana, you know that, I love you and I will not let what happened to us happen again. You are my life and my world and I will protect you from anything and everything," he vows, those words almost melt my cause. I know he means it but I still need him to trust me or we will never get out of the woods so to speak, I am an adult not a little child.  
"I know Christian, I love you too, but you're going to start trusting me," I whisper into the phone so no one can hear me.  
"Ana, I do trust you, but if you don't need to be directly involved in this then I won't let you, this is avoidable and she will never hurt you again, do you understand? I already have my own plans for Elena that will be carried out in the beginning of the week, you don't understand how much of a betrayal this is to my family and myself."  
"I'm sorry for all of this Christian, I really didn't mean for it to happen this way."  
"There's nothing to forgive, Ana, you did nothing wrong," he reassures me, "I have to go we will be calling them in a minute or so, I love you."  
"I love you too, I'll call you later?"  
"Can't wait, have a wonderful morning," he says then hangs up.

"Trouble in paradise?" Samuel says with a cocky grin plastered on his face that I just want to slap off.  
"No, not at all," I scoff at him and turn to look down at my script.  
"Doesn't sound like nothing to me, princess."  
"Well I'd like you to quit assuming things about me and my relationship, so please mind your own business and I'll do the same," I say coolly, then resting my head on my right hand blocking him from view and consequently ending his probing, I could hear Sawyer quietly scoffing behind us obviously witness to our exchange.  
From the far right corner of the room I could hear slight murmurs and my name being said quietly, I looked up from reading and looked at the source of the voices, it was the same women that were scoffing are now whispering to each other and periodically looking in my direction. I looked one of them in the eye when I caught them looking again and giving them a little smile which made me laugh quietly to myself.  
"We're the main attraction at the zoo," Samuel says in my ear, which made me dart my head towards him.  
Giving him a quizzical look, "What do you mean?"  
"Isn't it obvious? They're talking about you and me," he states like it was the most obvious thing in the world; well it was, but I didn't want to include him in my zoo attraction.  
"I try to ignore them, they're the type of woman who loves a good juicy story, but of course you don't mind that since you thrive off of your name being splashed across those gossip magazines," I scoff.  
"You wound me," he says feigning hurt.  
I roll my eyes at him and turn back to my script, but our annoying exchanges were gnawing at me, "Why did you do that last night?"  
"Do what?" he asks pretending that he doesn't even know he did anything wrong.  
"So you do kiss random people at parties for fun while the paparazzi takes pictures?" I asked sweetly.  
"You're hardly a random person, we work together," he smiles just as sweet.  
"I don't know you, you don't know me, I don't even particularly like you, maybe if you didn't act like such an ass most of the time we could be friends, but that kiss is completely unjustifiable, I know you only did it so your name could be all over the news, but sorry Samuel you've got the wrong girl. I do not want to be used for your publicity stunts," I say icily.  
"Feisty, I like that," he smiles at me.  
"This conversation is over, next time you feel like you want to be in the news pick someone else," with that I ignore him for the rest of the day and only being in contact when our characters have to speak to each other, the next three months will be hell with him.  
When it was finally time for lunch Sawyer and I quickly got out of the room, met the three others, and down to the cars. When we finally went down to go eat at Lucques a beautiful restaurant on Melrose Avenue, Carlos had emailed me a response that we would have some dinner tonight and go over our plan of action, he thinks the best thing to do for now is to say no comment, I had asked him if saying no comment insinuate that there was something to say. He explained that all I could do was ignore it in the meantime since Jane, Carlos, and myself were pretty much on the same side this time around, they didn't want my name to be tied down to anyone, they want me to be free for all the boys to worship and girls to look up to for being an "independent woman". This month and a half is dedicated to some down time and publicity for Flora Kats' new clothing line, then off to Paris for a little mini vacation; I hope that this problem with Elena is solved by then so Christian can accompany me. I gave Christian call but his assistant Andrea said he was to not be disturbed so I left him a message telling him to that I'll be able to talk tonight since I had no plans for the evening.

The rest of day passed by without any disturbances and I was able to make it to my condo effortlessly where the costume designer will be at my home for a private fitting. I had ushered her into my room and she brought with her a rack of clothing, trying on each of them the outfits she brought were the staple pieces of the movie, she wanted to know how my body is shaped so she would be able to shop for me better. When I arrived at the last dress, it had an accompanying jacket that looked rather familiar to me, pushing the thoughts out of my head I tried on the pair and admired myself in the mirror the jacket needed to be altered to fit me better, but it accented the dress quite nicely. Running my hands over the collar and into the pockets I noticed there was a tiny tape that looked like it was for those small recorders, thinking nothing of it I placed it on my vanity and took off the clothes. Thanking her for coming by I quickly undressed and jumped into the shower.

After jumping out I hear a loud thumping at my door that made me jump it was Sawyer, he was calling my name. I quickly dried myself off and put on my bathrobe, then met him at the door.

"What is it?" I asked taking in his frazzled looking state.

"You weren't answering your phone," Sawyer says frantically, "it's Dr. and Mr. Grey, they're missing."

My mouth drops opens and I crumple to the ground, "What do you mean?" I felt the pool of tears begin to sting my eyes.

"They were taken this afternoon, they were suppose to meet Mr. Grey, err Christian, for dinner, but they never showed up, we can't locate their car that was taking them back home and the security team that was tailing them had been shot, no casualties but they are in critical condition."

"We have to go," I say suddenly getting up off the floor and walking down to my room quickly, grabbing my luggage and stuffing clothes into it.

"No, Mr. Grey was quite adamant that you stay here in Los Angeles."

I laugh, "Over my dead body."

"He's afraid that you're next," he says quietly, I roll my eyes at him but continue to pack quickly. I would find the first flight out of here down to Seattle I know Christian needs me.

"Christian isn't thinking clearly," I simply state, "he needs me there, he's just too stubborn to let himself figure it out," I walk up to my vanity and quickly grab all of my necessities, bringing them to my luggage.

"You dropped this," Sawyer says, handing my the tape, "what's on it?"

"I don't know, I found it in a jacket pocket of something I was trying on, I don't really know why I kept it, but it piqued my interest I guess," I shrug.

Sawyer eyes the tape, "Do you think?"

Quickly realizing what he meant, "I don't know, we should find out, the thought that someone knew that I was going to try that jacket is truly frightening."

"I'll get Chon to pick up a recorder before we go," he says as he turns to walk out my bedroom.

"So you're no completely against me going?" I yell at him when he was outside.

"I don't have an opinion, but my story is that you held me at gunpoint until I let you leave the condo," he laughs.

I was grateful for the light release my nerves were fried and I can't even imagine what Christian was going through, "I think I can handle that."

After quickly shutting my suitcase, I grabbed my purse to check my phone, Christian had texted and called me a bunch of times; my heart broke for him. I decided to call him, but there was no answer on his end, I couldn't blame him, he's probably completely distraught over this entire fiasco. We need to get up there as soon as possible, when I was completely ready we took my car and I drove both of us to L.A.X. with Chon and Chris in tow, I had called Darla in the car and told her that there was an emergency at home that I needed to attend to. I also told her that she should try to book a flight first thing tomorrow so we can go through rearranging my schedule together. I was determined to be at Christian's side through all of this, when we arrived at the gates, I purchased four tickets first class, I usually wouldn't have done so, but they were the only free seats on the plane.

Sitting at the first class lounge I was unable to contain my nerves, I fidgeted and paced, I couldn't sit still at all, when we finally were called to board, I quickly jumped at the chance to get on the plane. Chon handed me the recorder and I slipped in the tape, I plan on listening to it on the flight there, I looked at my phone again before I turned it off and there was a missed call from Christian.

I called back immediately and he answered after the second ring, "Grey."

"Christian," I say relief flowing through me as soon as I heard his voice, "I'm so sorry, I heard about what happened, do you know who did it?"

"Ana, you have no idea how good it is to hear your voice," he sighs.

"You too."

"To answer your question, no there's no note or anything, no one's called us and it's been two hours, we can only presume its Elena, but we still have no leads."

"It'll be okay, they'll be fine," I say trying to soothe him, we just heard the last boarding call and then the flight attendant began giving their speech.

"Ana, where are you?" I could hear the anger rise in his voice.

"Uhh on a plane," I say quietly.

"That better be down to Paris or New York," he says tensely.

"Something like that," I say trying to evade the question.

"Anastasia, you are not to come down to Seattle."

"Christian, I have to go, I love you I'll see you soon," I say trying to avoid a fight before take off.

"Ana…" he begins, but I cut him off almost immediately.

"Christian, I love you, I have to go, see you soon," I say quickly and hang up.

Sawyer looks up to me, "Not happy?"

"No, but don't worry, before he'll fire you I'll tell him that I held you at gun point until you surrendered," I smile at him weakly, I know our arrival to Seattle will not be very warm.

"Let's hear the tape," he says trying to change the subject.

"Okay," I agreed, connecting my earphones to the recorder I pressed play, the first few seconds were just muffled, then what I heard made my blood turn cold and my heart to stop beating.


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: **Sorry for the sporadic updates, I hope that I'll be able to do it more frequently, but no promises. I only have one month left this semester so I will have more writing time early December. Lots of love and thank you for all the reviews, favourites, and follows, it is greatly appreciated! Xo

**Part 9**

I turn my head to face Sawyer's he notices my face completely pale and shocked he grabs the recorder and listens to it. "Ana, this could mean nothing, they're probably just playing with your emotions," he says trying to soothe me, "within the span of 6 hours it's feasible, but unlikely."

My mind was racing trying to deduce how all of this just got so fucked up? Why is Elena really doing this? This can't just be about Christian and I. I shake my head at him on the recorder was a recording of Christian's parents, they sounded like they were in pain, and a woman's voice that sounded familiar was coaxing them to beg for their lives, but with them refusing. It wasn't Elena's voice, but it bugged me that I couldn't place it.

"I just don't get it, why is this happening?" I ask burying my face in my hands; this flight was the longest hour and half of my life.

"Listen to the end, it sounds like Elena and she's pretty much giving you an ultimatum."

"What does she say?"

"She says that if you don't get 500 million in exchange for the Greys."

"What am I suppose to do? I don't have that type of money."

"Why is she asking for money? It used to be about getting back with Christian."

"Mr. Grey hasn't told you?"

"Hasn't told me what?" I asked.

Looking hesitant Sawyer finally divulged Christian's little secret, "I overheard a conversation before Mr. Grey left for Seattle, in light of recent events he instead liquidated them and took her out completely, he also stopped paying for her living expenses after finding out about all the blackmail."

"Christian was paying her living expenses?" I asked completely shocked.

"Yes, for awhile even before you two had broken up, the divorce from her husband had left her penniless and the salons weren't making enough revenue to cater to the life she was accustomed to."

"And Christian feeling guilty for the marriage paid for her to keep up her lifestyle," I concluded.

"Yes."

"Then what happened?"

"Well I can only imagine that she was evicted from her home and had not one cent to her name so that left her with absolutely nothing."

"If this was anyone else I would feel terrible for the woman," I shake my head, but my brain began working out all of the crazy possibilities, "how did she manage to get this to me?"

Sawyer shakes his head, "I really don't know Ana, someone must be doing it."

Then there it was, it all sort of connected, "She got someone in her messed up vendetta to come work for me, someone close, and now I remember why that jacket was so familiar. It was the one she was wearing when she told me to leave Christian that very last time, she is one conniving bitch."

"That makes sense, but who is it?"

"That's the really frightening thought, I don't know, it could be anyone at this point. I guess we'll talk to Christian when we finally get back."

"You should try to get some sleep before we land, it will be insane there."

"I don't think I could sleep if I tried," I sigh.

The rest of the flight was silence, Sawyer left me with my own thoughts, I needed to find out who was working for me that was with Elena. When we were finally descending at Sea-Tac I felt myself becoming more nervous, I really didn't want to start a fight with Christian, I just wanted to be with him.

Walking out the terminal I see Christian with Taylor waiting for us and for one single moment my heart skipped at beat when my eyes landed on him, but it was completely shattered when I saw how dishevelled he looked and the angry grimace on his face. He is not a happy Christian.

"Hey Christian," I say shyly.

"Hello, Anastasia, welcome home," he says dryly.

He gives me a quick kiss on the cheek and walks us out to the waiting car outside, Taylor gives me a tight smile his eyes supportive, but warning me to tread lightly. I slide in first, and then Christian follows, when we were settled he is running his hands through his hair and his knuckles over his thigh.

"Anastasia, I specifically told you to stay away," he seethes.

"Christian, I don't want to get in the way of all of this, but what makes you think I'll be safe down in L.A. when it appears that nowhere is safe," I reply, "I just wanted to be with you and support you through all of this. We are stronger together than apart, can't you see that?" He sighs then pulls me into him, "I promise I will stay out of the way and not be a burden to you, but I need to be here by your side, so please let me."

"I've wanted you with me ever since I left you in L.A. trust me, but I knew that I wanted you to stay out of harms way. And I truly believed that, that safe is far away from me and Seattle."

"I love you, Christian Grey," I said as I kissed his cheek, "when we step out of this car and get back home I will be all business, but right now right here can we just be Christian and Ana until the shit storm outside pops our bubble?"

"For you, anything baby," he kisses my forehead and drags me on top of his lap cocooning me to his body, "I love you and when this is all over I will prove to you how much."

"You've already proven it to me," he holds me close as we sit silently through the drive, when we've stopped and parked in the parking lot we both hold our breaths until the door opens for us and have to step outside. He kisses me one last time and steps out holding his hand out for me to take, we walk hand in hand to the elevator. When we reach the penthouse the room was abuzz, everyone seemed to be here.

"Ana this is Riley and Peters, they're P.I.'s, Welch, Barney, and our extra security Rowan, Prescott, Dwyer, and Samuels," he says curtly, I gave each of them a small smile and a nod, "this is Anastasia Steele, my girlfriend, she is completely clear and has access to every room, understood?"

"Yes, sir," they all said in unison.

"Let's go baby, I have some work to do in the office," he says in my ear and we head down the hall.

"Christian, I have a few things I need to discuss with you," I say quietly when he's sat down at his desk and me on one of the seats in front.

"What is it?"

"I found a recording in a jacket I wore at a fitting today, it was of your parents, a woman coaxing them to beg for their lives, and Elena demanding money. Sawyer told me about the arrangement you two had," I said quietly, Christian face becomes angry.

"Where is it?" he demands.

"In my purse that Sawyer brought in," I say sheepishly.

Without another word he calls Sawyer in to hand him the recording, when he enters the room he hands Christian the tape and plays it for him. Sawyer leaves us as the recording continues and Christian was radiating anger as Elena's voice filled the room, I know this will push him over the edge.

"When did you get this?"

"Late afternoon, probably around 5:00 pm, it was tucked in the jacket that Elena was wearing when I last saw her."

"Wait why was it her jacket?"

"Sometimes costume designers buy from vintage stores for pieces, this was probably planted, which brings me to my next point, I think that someone who's working with Elena is working for me, because there is no way she could have gotten that exact piece to me without someone close to me allowing it. Who knows this could have all been planned a long time ago and they were like sleeper agents, but what I don't understand is why? Since she would have had to anticipate our reunion and having someone come work for me as a sort of insurance that I will always be under her thumb. I just don't understand why she's gone to so much trouble," I grimaced. Christian gets up from his chair and kneels in front of me cupping my hand in his.

"She is unbalanced and completely deranged, my mom was one of her oldest friends and she was capable of doing this to her, its almost unfathomable," he kisses my hands, "I will fix this, I promise."

"Christian, you don't have to promise me anything, I love you and I believe in you," I smile at him and cup his face in my hands, "my handsome fifty."

He smiles at me, "Who do you think the mole could be?"

"That's the thing, I truly don't know, it could be absolutely anyone new I've met in L.A., but I think it's definitely someone I interact with a lot, they would have to know my schedule pretty well."

"Well let's start with the closest person to you, Carlos or Jane?"

"Yeah, they could be part of it, but how I met Carlos was completely coincidental, then Jane was brought in by Carlos, then there's Darla my P.A."

"They're all connected to him, when did Darla start?"

"Uhh a few months ago I think, I don't have the exact date, but it's an my e-mail Carlos sent me."

"We can't rule anyone out at this point, I'd hate to say this but we need to keep them at arm's length for now."

I nodded in agreement, "Damn it I almost forgot but I've already told Darla to come up here and reschedule my week."

"It's okay, baby, you just need to let her know that you'll be taking the week off earlier and cancel everything, we should weed these people out."

"Okay," I give a weak smile.

"You got your wish baby, you're helping me out."

I give him a big smile and kiss his cheek, he pulls me onto his lap in his chair at his desk, we begin to kiss, my body aching for him and with every flick of the tongue and nip of his teeth makes me warm all throughout my body.

"You make me forget all my problems, my beautiful Ana," he whispers in my ear as our kisses continue to escalate there was an abrupt knock at the door. "Fuck," he hisses, "yes?"

"Sir there's a call for you, it's her," Taylor says through the door. We quickly scramble up straightening ourselves out and running to the door.

"Is she still there?" Christian demands as we both leave his office.

"She's waiting on the line," Taylor answers.

"Fuck," he seethes and we quickly make our way to the living room where everything is set up.

"Her location has been traced and we have a security team on their way there and we've informed the FBI and their team will follow," says Peters.

Christian nods at him and takes the phone, "Elena, fuck are you doing?"

The speaker cracks and Elena's voice fills the room, "Oh darling, don't be so gruff, this is for us."

"Why the fuck are you doing this to them? Your problem is with me not my parents," he seethes.

"We could have been amazing Christian, but you let that mouse of a girl ruin you," she cackles, "now you get to see everyone you love suffer,"

"I will give you whatever you want, but just leave them the fuck alone," his voice chokes out, but as soon as the sentence leaves his lips the line goes dead.

"They have her," Riley exclaims.

I slump in my chair, that doesn't mean anything if we don't have his parents, I stand up and walk up to Christian, he looked dejected and all of the blood in his face was drained, he was pale as a ghost.

"That doesn't mean fuck all if we don't have my parents, fucking find them," he yells as he starts to walk away from them, I quickly follow him and grab his arm, but he pulls away from me leaving me standing on my own. I can hear his footsteps walking further away, probably back to his office; my suspicions were correct when slams the door.

"Ana," Gail greets me, "I'm so happy to see a familiar face."

"Oh, I've missed you so much," I turned to look at her and give her a hug.

"Let's get some tea?" she offers, then takes me by the hand and leads me to the kitchen.

"How have you been?" I asked as I took a seat.

"It's been better, but I'm very glad you've come back, Mr. Grey has been lost without you."

"I've been lost without him too," I confessed, she placed a cup of tea in front of me just the way I like it, "thank you."

We talked for a fifteen minutes until I decided that I needed to go to Christian and get him to sort through it all, I made him a cup of coffee and knocked at his door, when he didn't answer I opened the heavy doors and slid in. without a word I am at the side of his desk in front of him, he hasn't even once lifted his head to look at me.

"I brought you coffee, I know you have to stay awake," I said as I placed it next to him, his hand was playing with something small.

"Thanks," he says gruffly.

"Can you please look at me?"

He doesn't do anything for a few moments, but finally lifts his head to face me, "This is all my fault," he finally chokes out.

"Christian, this is none of your fault," I says sternly, "this is the work of an unbalanced and completely deranged woman, remember?" He lets out a low chuckle.

"Why are you here?" he asked quietly, "I'm so fucked up, I should have just left you alone."

"Oh, Christian, please don't say that," I begged as I sat myself down on his lap, "you were brave enough to come and get me, when all I did was hide and try to bury my emotions."

"No I was foolish."

"So are you saying that coming back to me was a mistake and that you wished you never did?"

He looked at me, his eyes showing all of the hurt he was keeping inside, "Never," he exhales, "but it was selfish of me."

"Why does it make you selfish, because you followed your heart? No one knew she would fly off the handle and jump off the deep end," I pressed my forehead to his, "no one knows what someone else will do, you didn't know the extent of her lunacy and I underestimated her, we should stop doing that. We will find your parents and everything will be fine, I promise."

"Please don't make promises you can't keep."

"Fine I can't promise you that, but we can't give up hope, what I can promise you is that I will love you forever and a day Christian Trevelyan-Grey no matter what this messed up life throws our way, I want to do this together," I took his hands away from what he was playing with and found a ring.

He looked at me a little shyly, "I bought this a long time ago, the day you left it took me weeks to get myself back together and I decided that I wouldn't give up so in this weird fantasy of mine I bought you this ring and I made you mine."

I sighed, I began leave a trail of kisses all over his face, "I love you, thank you for not giving up on me."

"I could never give up on something that brought me true happiness, I'm sorry it took so long to figure it out."

"All that matters is that you did."


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note:** Thank you all for the wonderful reviews, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter! I wasn't sure when was the next time I'll be able to update in the next few days, I'm knee deep in homework and studying, but I love writing so here it is! Lots of love xo

**Part 10**

When we finally untangled ourselves Christian went back to work and I sat at the chair facing his desk, no matter what I wanted to be beside him.

"Ana, baby, you should go get some sleep," he says as he kneels down in front of me, this chair isn't comfortable.

"No, Christian, I want to stay near you," I said with sleep apparent in my voice, "we've been apart for too long."

"My sweet Ana," he says as he kisses my forehead and get back to work at his computer, the last thing I remember was hearing the tapping of the keyboard.

I awoke disoriented it was a nice and sunny day the light was streaming into the room, I looked at the clock and it said 10:00 am. How long have I been asleep? I was in Christian's bed, but with no Christian, he probably just brought me back up here last night. I was dressed in my pyjamas, how did I end up in these? I walked to the other side of the room where my purse is and looked at my phone, there were at least 50 messages from Carlos, Jane, and Darla, just thinking that they could have something to do with this filled my entire body with dread. I went downstairs to check on the action that was occurring, the entire place was still abuzz, but everyone seemed extremely tired, their eyes sunken, face hallow, sipping cups of coffee. I said greeted them a good morning and made my way to the breakfast bar where Gail was making a stew of some sort.

"Good morning Ana, did you sleep well?" she asks.

"Pretty good, where's Christian?" I asked since I didn't see him with the rest of them in the living room.

"He's holed up in his office," Gail shakes her head.

"Did he have breakfast?"

"Just coffee," she sighs, "what would you like to eat?"

"Just some yogurt, granola, and fruit with some tea."

"Ahh something's never change, huh?" She smiled at me sweetly.

"I guess not," I return her smile, "has he said anything?"

"No nothing but a good morning."

"Okay, well I'll go check on him before breakfast, do you think you could make that two?" I ask, "I want to make sure he keeps himself fed."

"Of course," Gail hands me two bowls of yogurt, a side of granola and fruit, a coffee and a tea on a tray.

"Thank you, Gail," I smile at her and walk up to his office. I lightly knock on the door, he barks out something incoherent and I open the door to let myself in.

"Good morning Christian," I gave him a small smile. His hair was at a complete disarray, he's wearing yesterday's clothing and his handsome face is exactly the same as the rest of them out there, "you need to eat."

"I'm okay Ana, did you sleep well?" he rasps.

"Yes, thank you, how are you? Apart from everything else?" I ask a little apprehensive.

"Fine, Elena won't talk, we've already scanned through everything, and we found absolutely nothing. There have been calls made to random phone numbers, I think that is how they're communicating, by pay-to-go phone lines then discarding them so she never uses them twice. She's planned this to a fault," he grimaces as I pour granola and fruit in his bowl.

"What can I do?"

"Just be here."

"I can do that, so have you had any luck with Carlos and company?"

"Welch is checking on that, they've all basically worked under the radar, nothing is traceable," he runs his hands through his hair again.

I quickly get up and sit in his lap running my hands through his hair, "It'll be fine, Christian, we'll find them," I whispered in his ear.

"It's already been a day, the longer they stay kidnapped the colder the trace gets," he sighed holding me close to him.

I rub his back, "Carlos, Jane, and Darla have all called me numerous time last night, what shall I say?"

"Nothing, until we figure out that recording and the jacket's timeframe, my gut tells me Darla, but we have to make sure, just act natural."

"Darla? Why?"

"She's with you every step of the way, she makes your appointments, she makes sure you are where you should be, she knows everything and if Elena did plan this elaborate scheme then Darla would be her best ally in all of this."

"What should I do with her?"

"Welch is doing a more thorough background check on her as we speak, every call, every e-mail made by her, be it under and alias or a prepaid phone, I'll know by noon today. Then we'll go from there, but for now I think you should play her up, pretend you don't suspect her and act normally. Invite her here to talk so we can keep an eye on her, she's staying at a hotel in downtown, we have eyes on her and when she went out for breakfast this morning we bugged her place. Though we won't be able to use that as evidence against her, but it'll bring us closer to finding out the truth."

"I'll go call her to tell her to come here."

"Act normally, we don't want her to suspect a thing."

"I'm an amazing actress," I winked at him, "finish your breakfast."

"You're starting to sound like me," he chuckles.

"I guess so," I smiled at him and got off his lap.

"Hey wait, what about your breakfast?"

"I finished it," I said lifting the bowl to show him, "you've been a little preoccupied."

"I'm sorry," he sighs.

"Christian, it's okay, you're stressed. I'll be back in a bit after I shower, I can call Darla then, okay?"

"Okay," he says as I walk out the door with my tray of empty food. I bring it into the kitchen and load up the dishwasher while Gail has her back turned to me, I thank her again for breakfast and made my way to Christian's room to get ready for the day.

I go through my routine and decided to slip on just a pair of jeans, t-shirt, sweatshirt, and my old chucks which I feel like I haven't worn in years. I dried my hair and put it in ponytail, I went back downstairs with my phone in hand and completely adamant that Christian showers and gets ready for another long day. I may even get him to nap for a bit, staying up all night won't be good for him and now more than ever he needs his strength.

Another light tap on the door, Christian is on the phone with what seems like to be Prescott, I think she's the one that's been sent over to watch for Darla, since she won't recognize her. I sat in my usual seat and waited to know what the new updates were, Christian scowls and then hangs up.

"That was Prescott."

"Oh?"

"You've probably caught on that she's the one watching over Darla, she's sitting at a café with a woman, the thing that was a bit odd was that she's never been out of L.A. and she has no known friends from this area."

"You know who her friends are?" I ask quirking my eyebrow.

"Yes, it wasn't hard," he says then continues, "this meeting of sorts is a bit conspicuous, I need you to call her and ask her to come here. We need to keep her close to us," he sighs, "Prescott will then tail the new girl and see what she can get out of her. In the meantime we'll lie low."

"Has Elena said anything at all?"

"No, we know it's her that's behind the kidnapping, but she still won't speak, she's going to go under psychiatric evaluation."

I pull my legs up to my chest and hug them to me, "I'm going to call Darla, I want to figure this out."

"Okay, I won't say a word."

I start to call and she picks up on the third ring, "Ana, how are you?"

"I'm fine, and yourself?"

"Pretty good, so are you ready to figure out your schedule?"

"Yes, can you meet me here at Escala? I don't really feel like going outside right now."

"Totally understandable, I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"Great, see you soon," I say then hang up.

"She's coming?" Christian asks.

"Yeah, in fifteen minutes."

"Good, Kate, Elliot, and Mia are all coming here in the afternoon, we thought there was a threat so we sent them away, but I think it'll be better for all of us to stay in one place."

"Strength in numbers huh?" I smile at him.

"Exactly, plus I know that I'll be glued at home, I want you to at least be able to relax away from this stress."

"They're stressed too."

"Yes, but it's better to be stressed together than apart."

"What are your plans?"

"What do you mean?"

"As in I get carted off with the three of them and we get to pretend that all is good when you have to bear this weight."

"She's my problem, Ana, no one else's, I brought this on my family."

I shake my head at him, "No you didn't Christian, you need to stop punishing yourself, what about what we talked about yesterday?"

"I can't help but feel responsible for all this shit, so until we get this sorted out I'm going to stressed."

"I understand," I say and walking up to him to rub his shoulders, "I'm here though."

"I know," he says as he kisses my hand, "I don't know what I would do without you."

"Let's not go through that again, alright? Let's focus on your parents."

We were silent for a few moments as I tried to work out his kinks, when I looked at his computer screen, it was a girl I recognize with Darla. I just couldn't put a name to her face, but she looked much too familiar. I racked my brain silently, as someone loudly knocked on his door.

"Come in," he barks, back was the megalomaniac that I was so deeply in love with.

"Mr. Grey, I have the reports," it was Welch's voice that filled the room, he briskly walked to take a seat, as I extracted myself from Christian.

"I'll go," I kissed his cheek.

"It's okay, Ana, you can stay," he responds, I gave him a smile and returned to my seat, I gave Welch a smile and returned it with a nod.

"It's her sir," he says and my body drops. He hands Christian the file he made of Darla, it was thick, "I almost missed it completely, but its definitely her, my guys are still working on Carlos and Jane, and her connection to the two, but we've narrowed it down considerably."

"Good," Christian is tapping his fingers on his desk.

"Her real name is Rhonda LaBec, she was born in Seattle, Washingon, she is Elena's niece, she moved to L.A. three years ago to be a model. As Rhonda LaBec we have a solid connection, because she was the one that has been travelling back and forth states every couple of weeks, the Darla we know has not set foot on Washington at all. We got the information on Darla because that's was superficial, I think they didn't' suspect us to go any deeper. So all the records of her attending school in L.A. was all fabricated, we would have missed it completely if she hadn't made a mistake in April by emailing from her Rhonda LaBec account to one Carlos del Vecchio. This woman has been living a double life."

My ears perk up from the sound of Carlos' name being said, my brain started going through all of the events of the last six months to see if he had shown anything and I was too dense to notice.

Welch continues, "Now that brings a definite connection to our Rhonda, we have to investigate him further to see if our suspicions are correct."

"Get rid of them all," Christian says harshly.

"Hold on Christian, we can't jump that gun, let's have Welch go through everything on him before we presume anything."

"No, absolutely not, we get rid of all of them, if you want we will hire you new representation. I will ruin them all," he spat out vehemently.

"Christian, a ton of people change their names in Hollywood, you can't just murder their careers because they may or may not be innocent, you have to get the facts before you go barrelling in there with guns blazing."

"This has gone on for long enough, I don't care if you're not okay with it Anastasia, they're gone, end of discussion."

"Christian, be reasonable," I plead.

"NO," he yells, "that's that."

"Mr. Grey, if I must, she has a point, maybe we should get all of our information before we do anything."

Christian closes his eyes for a moment and breathes deeply trying to reign in his anger, "Fine, by the end of the day I want everything on anyone Ana has come in contact with professionally." I shake my head at him, but say nothing because I don't want to stress him any further.

"Have you gotten anywhere with the recording?" I ask Welch.

"We have a time frame, the jacket was loaded onto the cart by 3:00 pm, just a half an hour until you were set to try it on, the Greys' were kidnapped at precisely 1:45 pm so there's an hour and a fifteen minute window for that tape to have been recorded and placed." I sag deeper into the chair, "Do you know where Darla, sorry Rhonda was?"

"Well she was with me at the table reading from morning to around two I believe," I said thinking of the approximate time, "wait on the phone last night Christian told me it was only a couple of hours since they were kidnapped, but you say it was at 1:45 pm."

"That was my fault," Christian sighs, "they found the cars a couple hours before, but I didn't realize that they had gone missing an hour and a half hours earlier."

"It's okay, I just wanted to make sure that everything fit, so what are we going to do with Darla?"

"First we need to get her up here, then we'll have Welch and the investigators on her, we have to make sure she's secure so she doesn't run. We have evidence linking her to Elena, we just need find out how far she's in and if she'll divulge any information, no matter how this goes, I'm running her name through the mud."

I sigh, after a few minutes, Welch was called outside, leaving Christian and I alone, I went up to go look at the picture that was taken today of Rhonda and her friend, I was still having a hard time placing her. A few silent moments pass between us, then a ring brought us to the present, Taylor was informing Christian that Darla was in the building and was making her way up. I put my game face on, gave him a kiss on the cheek, and walked out the door. When she stepped out of the elevator she was greeted by Taylor and myself, Christian was still at his office.

"Good afternoon, Darla," I smiled at her, while my brain wanted to yank her apart to find out where they was keeping the Greys'.

"Hi, Ana," she said cheerfully, I couldn't help but leer at her; she was working for Elena the entire time, feeding her information about me.

"How was your flight?" I ask trying to keep conversation rolling while we walked in.

"It was good, thanks, how about yours? What's the family emergency?"

"You haven't heard? My boyfriend's parents have been kidnapped by some lunatic," I said nonchalantly.

She hitched in step and I knew that was a slip up, "I heard, but I wasn't sure," she smiled to me sweetly, all I wanted to was to rip her face off for doing this to them.

"Well you are now," I shrug, we made our way through the living room which was full of people, the colour drained on her face immediately, if I hadn't believed that she was an accomplice before, I do now. I'm sort of glad that I told her to come here last night; sometimes Karma can be bitch. I smiled at her sweetly, "Don't mind them, they work for Christian, he'll stop at nothing to find his parents, let me introduce you." She backs away slowly, but I grab her hand quickly, "They won't bite."

"Umm … I –I think I forgot something in my car, I'll be right back," she stammers.

"Sawyer can get it for you," I say slyly, I lead her to the room, "Hey everyone, this is my P.A. Darla, Darla this is everyone," I smile at her as I name them off. When we finally get the formalities out of the way I bring her into the kitchen and ask her if she needs a drink, she shakes her head no, and still no colour in her face. I know she knows she's been caught; Taylor has been hovering over us since the elevators.

"Let's go to the office, I want to get all my scheduling stuff worked out," I smile at her sweetly. She's dead on her feet and I practically had to carry her in. when I open the door, Christian is sitting authoritatively at his desk, he's changed his shirt from last night and has on a tie. I whisper her in ear as we walk up to his desk, "I suggest you cooperate, there's only so much I can do." She looks at me with dread in her eyes. "Get yourself together, he's not going to kill you."

She nods her head stupidly and takes a seat; Welch appears a few seconds behind us with his file on her. I stand up and gave her a sad smile, she's in a world of hurt, I just hope she has some sense to actually confess, because I know Christian is out for blood.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's Note: ****Hello friends, how are you all? Here's another chapter, I'm so sorry for not updating, but school has taken over my life, this weekend has a smaller workload! Only two weeks until school over for the semester, I hope you all enjoy this! Thank you to all the reviewers, story follows, and favourites! xoxoxoxo**

**Part 11**

I sat at the chair next to her facing Christian's desk, Taylor was hovering behind us while Welch handed Christian the file and took a seat next to us.

Christian reads over the files and looks over the pictures, we are all silent for a while I cross my legs and tap the leg of the chair with my foot, "You've been a very busy girl, Miss _LeBec_," he chuckles menacingly, if this was me in her position I would be frightened, but I wasn't so I just gave her a sweet smile. How does someone even permit herself to be in this mess?

"Wh-what's h-happ-ppening, what do you mean?" Rhonda stutters out nervously.

I pat her arm, "I really don't think you should play dumb, how long have you been in this?"

She looks around the room her eyes begging for reprieve, but nothing will come for her, finally she sags in her seat and finally speaks, "I… I'm really sorry Ana, I… I .. I didn't know that it would go this far."

Finally having her admit it to my face, I thought I would feel some sort of relief, but all I could feel was pure anger, how could she do this to me? I truly believed we had become friends, how many people were working for her and Elena? Fuck I'm a fool, my rage taking over me for being duped, "Don't fucking start apologizing, you knew what you were doing from the get-go, you're a truly despicable person. Did you know Christian or I when you first began?"

"No..no," she says still slumped in her seat.

"So what the fuck were you doing working for that troll bitch Elena? Just for kicks? What did we ever do to you to make you do this to us? Fuck you should have been the actress, you're a god damn good liar." I yelled at her, standing up unable to continue to be still I paced around the room, "Who else was working for you?"

"Ummm… ummm I…" she begins.

"Use actual vocabulary," I spat getting really close to her, "who was that girl with you today?"

"Girl?"

"Oh come on, what happened to not lying? Remember I told you this would work out so much better for you in the long run if you were just honest, there must be some redeeming qualities about you."

"Ana," Christian interjects, he looks at me his eyes praising, "I think you've got your point across."

I give him a sly smile and walk next to him taking his side, "I love you," I whisper in his ear.

"I love you too," he wraps his one arm around my side, a strong front, that's what we are. After our momentary exchange he glances up at Rhonda, "You know I will ruin you for doing this to my family, I will ruin every single person you have ever come in contact with, and I don't care who it is. Though I will go easy on you _if_ you tell me where they are."

"You're too late," she finally answers, but that defeated demeanour is gone out the door and in comes a girl I've never met before, "you were too fucking slow, so now your parents are going to die at the bottom of a lake," she laughs menacingly.

I lunge at her, but Taylor and Christian wrap their arms around me, "She's just trying to toy with us."

Rhonda let's out another laugh, "Far from it, you need me."

My anger fully erupted and I escaped their hold on me, finally making contact with her. I found myself on top of her, "You fucking bitch, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it?"

"Okay, baby, she gets it," Christian pries me off of her.

"How are you not losing your shit, Christian?"

"Because we've already got her, we just needed her to confirm it, and waste some time, we went through her car while she was up here and we found the files, didn't even think about hiding them."

"That's illegal," she says stiffening and sounding a bit more nervous.

"We just needed a little time," Christian smiles.

"Your parents?" I asked.

"We're still working on that, one thing at a time baby, patience remember?" he smirks at me.

At that very moment two FBI agents came in to take her away, she was taken into custody and dragged out. They ignored the visible blood and scratch marks on her face; all I could do was laugh because her face became white as a ghost.

"What did you find out?" I asked.

Christian leads me to his desk once more and opens the folder that was handed to him earlier, he opens it, emails and pictured… everything. I can't believe she kept all of it, I was dumbfounded. "She kept an account of everything going on, she wanted to have a safety net for when this shit erupts in her face, which it obviously did, but this really didn't have her desired effect."

I laughed, this information will lead to the whereabouts of the Grey's, all we have to do now is act fast, before this turns cold and their side finds out about Rhonda's arrest, "I love you."

"You were so sexy back there," Christian whispers into my ear as we walk outside of his office, I'm glad that this has brightened his mood considerably.

"Mmm, I'm glad you liked the show," I whisper low, "take me to bed, Mr. Grey."

"I would want nothing more," he growls grabbing me and carrying me up to his bedroom. He throws me onto his bed, "you are so fucking beautiful Anastasia."

"Come here," I whisper.

He takes off my pants and spreads my legs, "mmm you smell so fucking good, I've missed you."

I sit up and push his head deeper into me, "I love when you fuck me with your tongue," I gasp out clenching my thighs around his head, pushing me even further in, not long after that I reach my climax. I groan out in absolute ecstasy, "I want to return the favour." I say with a sly smile across my face, "I've missed how you've tasted too."

I stand up and pull him up to me pushing my tongue into his mouth tasting myself on his lips, he groans in my mouth, "You never cease to amaze me, my sexy minx," he laughs deeply.

"Hmm lay down," I command, I've never done this before, commanded Christian to do anything, even before I knew about his lifestyle choices, but he took it with a grain of salt and laid on the bed with a pillow behind his back. I crawled in between his legs and took him completely in my mouth, he was so big that I had to remember to relax my jaw so I could take him in, with what couldn't fit into my mouth I used my right hand to pump the rest of him, and my left played with his balls. He grabbed a fistful of my hair and started to push himself deeper into my mouth while he started bucking his hips upwards and we would meet between each thrust.

"Ana, so fucking good, fuck I love when you suck my cock," he says with his voice strained, I hum letting the vibrations massage him, "fuck," he hisses. My teeth begin to graze him while I bob my head, I could feel his balls tighten and his body stiffen, four more thrusts he comes in a long burst down my throat, I smile at him when he releases me. His eyes glazed over and his head hitting the bed as I lick him clean.

"Better?"

"Much better," he says grabbing me and pulling me into him, he wraps his arms around me and I rest my head on his chest I could feel and his heart beating, "I think you're wearing too much clothes Anastasia," he murmurs into my hair.

"What are we going to do about it?" I ask him shyly.

"Stand over there and take off your clothes… slowly," he smirks at me as I get up from the bed and start undressing, taking my time as I unbutton and caress my body, "you're perfect." I blush under his scrutiny and finally when I was fully naked, he stands up completely hard again, "My beautiful Ana, I don't know how I got by without you for so long."

"Me either," I sigh, he cups my face and begins to kiss me tenderly, sometimes he keeps his shirt on when we're together, but I really hope that one day I can finally touch him. I long to kiss his chest and run my hands along his stomach, thinking about the Adonis standing in front of me I start to tremble in his touch, making me completely wet with the mere thought of him, "please let me touch you," I ask in a whisper before I could even process what I said it had slipped out.

"Ana…" he warns.

"I'm sorry Christian, but I just need to feel you, please?" I begged, knowing that I will be unable to retract, "I want to be near you, all of you."

He looks into my eyes searching; I know he's torn between haphephobia and fully letting me in, I looked into his eyes, promising that he was safe with me. I knew my eyes were begging him to let me in; his eyes were laced with fear and worry. I touched his jaw, rubbing circles along his stubble and he leans into my touch closing his eyes, appearing to be savouring it.

"I love you so much, Christian, you know I won't hurt you, please trust me," I beg him.

"I know that you love me and I do trust you, but I'm afraid," he whispers, the word = actually fell out of his mouth, I didn't even think he was capable of it. He was always the strong one, but looking back at what I did to him and the extent of the hurt I put him through, I understood why he would be even more apprehensive.

I grab his boxers and hand them to him, he puts it on and I grab one of his shirts and slip it on, I sit on the bed crossed legged and he follows suit, "I don't want to push you, I never do I know that I hurt you, but I promise I will make you see how much I love and care for you everyday of my life. I love you Christian Grey, nothing will ever change that, I promise you, and no one will tear us apart. I know I set us back by leaving, but I will work hard for us," I whispered, facing him and running my hand through his hair, he closes his eyes.

"I trust you," he says while his eyes remain closed. I savour the feel of his hair between my fingers, I run my hands over his face memorizing ever dip and line; I love this man.

Slowly he opens his eyes, grabs my hands and places them onto my knees, he gives me a shy smile, so foreign to him, he slowly unbuttons his shirt. My eyes almost pop out of my face was he really doing this? His eyes remain in mine, begging me to be kind, he was going to set the pace I won't make any sudden movements, when the buttons were all undone, he takes his shirt off his back and places it near us, not even bothering to fold it. He takes my right hand into his and slowly places it on to his chest, letting my fingers run along, finally he lets go, he's giving me the green light to roam with no boundaries. I smile at him and I take my other hand and softly place my hands on his chest, he stiffens, his face showing his fears. I continue on running my hands over his broad shoulders, to his stomach, and around his arms, soft tingles were engulfing my body. Christian's body relaxed a bit as I moved in a bit closer to him and kissed his scars, then I made my way to his well toned back to slowly run my hands greedily around the area. Finally finishing up with my exploration I gave him a hug from behind and kissed his cheek he went completely stiff, but eventually relaxed, completely elated that he's finally let me in completely.

"Thank you," I said simply.

"You're welcome," he breathes out, "I will do anything for you."

"I know," I said happily, "thank you for letting me in, that wasn't easy for you."

"It really wasn't, but if I want to be with you I know that I have to let you in completely."

Christian regained his confident demeanour and had me sit on his lap, burying me into his beautiful body, we laid in bed while time stood still, we didn't need to say anything to each other. Every kiss and touch spoke a thousand words, he is my life now and I was his. I finally understood it, amongst all the chaos that was our life, I knew we would be okay.

Our silent conversation was interrupted by a knock at the door, we both groan unhappy that we were being torn apart by the reality outside our bubble.

I sigh and get up from the bed, "Going to wash up a little, I don't think you should join me, we might never get out of here," I tease him as I close the door behind me. I could hear murmurs outside, but nothing complete, I quickly washed up and dried off, Christian was on his computer looking pensive.

Finally noticing my presence he looks up, "Do you know a Laura Smith?"

"Uh, maybe name sound familiar," I reply, putting on a black Versace body-con dress, with silver leather padded trims, accentuating my curves.

"She worked pretty closely with Rhonda, she was the woman from this morning," he said as he typed furiously on his MacBook. I sat next to him on the bed taking a look at the picture of the girl, and then almost instantly it all clicked, Laura Smith was the woman who interviewed me the other night!

"Laura Smith did that interview in Malibu," I said plainly, Christian looked at me in shock, "I can't believe they got so close," I chewed on my bottom lip.

Not missing a beat he calls Taylor and barks orders at him, he pinches the bridge of his nose and runs a free had through his hair, this can't be good, "Ana they have been so fucking close to you the entire time, fuck."

"I didn't know, I'm really sorry Christian, I didn't know Elena went so far," I looked at him his face softening immediately.

"It's not your fault," he says as holds me tight to him, "I hate that they got so fucking close to you, who knows what could have happened," he stands up from the bed and steps into the bathroom, "you can check out the information, it's on my desktop, I'll be back."

He keeps the door open as he starts a shower and I go through every message between Rhonda and Laura, this was completely sick, I hate myself for not even catching it. I opened up a file that was labeled Carlos; there was just so much information that I don't even know where to begin. I'm lost in it all, completely far away from my surroundings.

"Don't worry Carlos is clean as far as we can tell," Christian says as he sits back down next to me.

I simply nod my head and close his computer, I look up at him he looks tired and his eyes were just slightly sunken, "You need to eat and have proper rest, you haven't slept in probably 36 hours."

He shakes his head, "I can't, not until they're home."

"Christian, you won't be any good if you're passing out in the middle of something, we've gotten far today, the guys are working around the clock, you need to relax now and regain your energy, please for me?" I ask kneeling on the bed and placing my hands on his chest, "if only for a few hours."

"Fine, but you have to sleep with me too," he concedes.

"Good, let's go get dinner, after you can work for another hour, but I will drag you out of your office if you so much as stay a minute longer, deal?"

"Deal," he smiles at me.

"Good."

**xxxx**

"Oh everyone has arrived, they're waiting for us downstairs."

"It'll be good to see them all," I said happily, "but you will definitely be asleep soon Mr. Grey."

"Yes, Miss Steele."

I laugh at him and we walk hand in hand to dining room where the Kavanaghs and Greys were situated, when they see us they jump from their seats and pull us into a large group hug, everyone seemed to be a little red eyed and tired, but they were putting up a good front. Kate took me to the side and gave him the biggest hug and the harshest scolding, all I could do was laugh and hug her.

"You will never disappear again!" she says through tears, "you can disappear from Grey, but not from me," she says as she laughs, Mia joins us squealing in happiness. I could see that she probably hasn't slept in 24 hours either, what a bittersweet reunion. When we all sat down to eat, we were all quiet, once the initial excitement ended we were left to our own thoughts.

"They're all over the news," Elliot muses as he takes a bite of a carrot.

"Yeah, national news," Ethan pipes in.

"I'm writing a story on it," Kate says sheepishly, Elliot looks at her and the usual laidback demeanour is gone and replaced by anger.

"What the hell, Kate?" he yells.

"What?" she asks quietly, "you know it's my job."

"You could refuse, you promised not to write about us," he says.

"Don't start this again," Kate huffs folding her arms, "you don't know, maybe it'll be good, it could even help them."

"Fuck that, you know that it won't," he bellows, "you can't do this, Kate."

"I'll do what I want," she yells with just as much gusto.

"Fine, do what you want," he spat back, gets up from the table and walks out.

Christian and I look at each other, unsure about what happened, this conversation probably has happened before, but never in front of us. Kate begins to cry quietly, I try to comfort her but she shakes her head and walks out after Elliott, leaving us with Mia and Ethan. We continue our dinner until Taylor pulls Christian away, I nod at him and mouthed one hour, he smiles back at me and exits the room. After dinner we cleared the table and I caught up with Mia and Ethan, we could hear the yells coming from the Kate and Elliot's room making us cringe from all the things they were saying to each other. I wonder when that relationship spiralled out of control, was I really that so detached that Kate didn't feel comfortable talking to me about this. Ethan persuaded Mia to go to bed finally and I decided to reschedule all my appointments myself, while I wait for Christian's hour to be up.

I finally made my way to his office I knocked and walked in, he was talking to Welch and one of the investigators intently, when Christian sees me he smiles and excuses himself.

"Sorry, my girl says I have to go, let me know if anything changes," he says to the men, they both smile at me as we all exit the room.

"Thank you," I say to him as we enter the bedroom.

"What for?" he asks unbutton his shirt and taking off his tie.

"For being easy and listening to me," I say sheepishly.

"Anything for you," he kisses me, we get ready for bed, Christian in silk sleeping pants and me in a satin nightie. We snuggle against each other in the middle of the bed, wrapping me in his strong arms and my head on his chest and we fall asleep immediately.

**xxxx**

"CHRISTIAN, ANA!" a yelling in my dream became louder, the voice is getting closer and I feel a weird yanking. I finally wake up and it's Taylor at my side, he was shaking me awake, it took me a few moments to become oriented with my surroundings.

"Taylor?" I ask my voice raspy, "what is it?"

"We found them," he says completely calm, it took me a few moments to fully comprehend what he was saying.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note:**** Hello friends… I know it's been a LONG, LONG time, but I sincerely apologize! I haven't updated this story, because I really haven't found any time to write and update, I've only been able to update my other story Torn, because I had a few extra chapters for it. I write a chapter every time I want to update this story, so I spend a few hours on it. My last final is next Tuesday so I will be updating again next week for sure! Thank you all for your patience, this story is update is mostly fluff, but I hope you all enjoy it nonetheless! Lots of love xo**

**Part 12**

"CHRISTIAN!" I yell shaking him awake frantically; it took a few more tries until he was finally awake.

"What is it?" he asked his voice still laced with sleep.

"They've found your parents," I told him with a large smile.

He looked at me for a few moments until he finally processed what I had just told him, "When? Where are they?"

Taylor pipes in, "They're at the University of Washington Medical Centre being checked out, they were found just thirty minutes ago."

"Let's go," Christian jumps out of bed begins to get dressed, I quickly follow him into the washroom, he opts for a pair of black jeans, a crisp button down shirt with a pair of old black leather sneakers and I choose an outfit similar to his unintentionally. Within a few minutes Kate, Elliot, Mia, Ethan, Christian, and I were all in a car driven by Taylor on our way to the hospital, while a few others from Christian's security team followed us in another car behind.

I looked at my phone, it was 2:00 am when we finally got to the hospital, and we were ushered to the floor where the Greys were being taken care of. We weren't allowed to see them until they had gone through the examination, we were all antsy to physically see them, but to know that they were only a room away enabled us to sit in the waiting area a bit more patiently. About a half hour later we all had calmed down a bit and ingested a few cups of coffee, we were all excited, then a few minutes later a nurse came out from the room informing us that we were allowed to see them now. We all jumped to our feet and walked into the room, our eyes finally feasted on the couple holding each other on the bed in the middle of the room. The two looked unscathed except for a few bruises and cuts, we were all smiles finally being able to find some sort of relief from all of the drama the last few days. We let the three Grey children have the first greetings and hugs, just being able to see the amount of love in their family made me unbelievably happy, as Mia and Elliot cried on their mother's shoulder, Christian was hugging their father, words didn't need to be expressed, we all knew what was being exchanged. When they finally detached from Grace and Carrick, they all motioned for us to come join them, I was still hesitant to come forward with them, I had been gone for so long that I felt like I had no claim to any one of them, but that was changed when Grace came disentangling herself from the hugs of everyone to come and walk up to me embracing me.

Grace began to whisper into my ear so no one can hear, "I'm so glad that you're back home with us, our family hasn't been the same without you, especially Christian," she kissed my forehead.

I hugged her tightly, "I'm sorry for all of this trouble."

"Shhh," she said into my hair, "just don't disappear again, I don't think Christian could handle it again."

"I won't ever leave him, I belong with him, I know that."

"Good, now come," she finally unwrapped her arms around me and led me to the group watching our interaction, then I gave Carrick a large hug and told him that I was glad they were finally safe.

"Sorry to interrupt," the doctor attending came into the room, " I just wanted to inform you that we can release you now."

"That's good, thank you," Christian smiled uninhibited, "let's go home."

xxxx

When our group made it back to Grace and Carrick's home, we all sat together, Mia was attached to her mom while Carrick holds her hand.

I whisper to Christian, "Why hasn't anyone taken their statements yet?"

"I told them to come in the morning when we've all rested, this may be over for my parents, but it won't be for their captors, this will be a very long road ahead," he sighs.

I snuggle into him a bit more as he drapes his arm closer to me, I have my head on his shoulder, and whisper to him, "I'll be there every step of the way."

"I know," he kisses my forehead, "I love you."

"I love you too."

"I'm so glad you two found each other again," Grace commented making me smile and Carrick nodded his head in our direction in agreement with his wife.

"We should all get some sleep, I believe we all will have a very long morning tomorrow," Carrick tells us, taking his wife's hand, then wrapping an arm around her shoulders supporting her with each step. The love they have between each other was aweing, I hope that Christian and I are just as in love twenty years from now, looking back at my handsome fifty. His eyes were trained on his parents lost in thought, I know this is the biggest relief to him. I grab his hand and pull him up with me, he wraps an arm around my waist and holds me tightly to him as we walk up the stairs.

"Thank you for all of this, baby," Christian whispers in my ear when we reach his room.

"You don't have to say thank you, I should be the one thanking you for always fighting for us," I smile at him as I strip out of my clothes and climb into the bed.

"I will always fight for you, you are the one thing in my life that I will never give up; you are my life and love. This whole ordeal has solidified that for me, you were there for me, and you know when to me from myself. You are such an amazing woman, I'm the luckiest man in the world," he coos as he joins me in the bed wrapping his arms around me, enveloping me in his warmth, "you know and do the things that I need, it may not be what I think is best, but sometimes you know better, because you can see what I can't. You're my better half."

"You're mine, always and forever," I say into his neck as we both fall asleep.

xxxx

The next morning the warmth of the sun seeping through his curtain greeting Christian and I, waking us from our slumber.

"Good morning beautiful," he rasps

"Good morning, Christian," I smile at him kissing the tip his nose, I run my hands up and down his biceps kissing him lightly from his mouth, to his chin, then around his neck, slowly working my way down his shoulder and towards his chest.

He groans, "We should get down, those FBI agents will be here in an hour or so to get their statements," he smiles, "if I let you continue this, we will never get out of this room."

"Fine," I huff jokingly making Christian laugh and kiss me deeply.

"I promise, later we will continue this, baby," he growls into my mouth making me shiver.

"Deal, let's go," I smile, "you should shower first, I don't think we will have the same restraint if we share the bathroom."

He laughs conceding giving me another kiss as he walks into the adjoining bath, I lie back down onto the bed and hug the pillow he had laid in and pressed it close to me as I checked my phone. There were a bunch of calls, emails, and texts, from Carlos, Jane, and the assistant of the Director of the movie that I had been neglecting as of late. I groan disappointed that I have to keep up with my "real life", I really need to discuss the Carlos and Jane problem, I know that Welch is working on all the people I've come in contact with while I had been working.

I had sent an email to Vogue to reschedule my fitting for later the next week in LA, I would spend the day there and take a red eye to be back home if necessary, I didn't want to be apart from Christian any longer than a day. Which I know is a bit extreme, but I had been away form him for so long that I just wanted to around the man, he's my soul mate. The team from Vogue still had to come back to me, I'm contractually made to be there, but it states that I will be able to reschedule within 48 hours of said photo-shoot without any penalizations. Though if they were going to be difficult, I can just have Carrick have a look through it and he could probably find a loophole of some sort.

Without another glance at my phone I threw it into the bed and leaped at the very wet and naked Christian Grey who had just appeared in front of the bathroom door. I wrapped my legs around his waist and his mini-man stood up in attention, I grinded a bit into him then slid down, standing up on my tippy toes to kiss him lightly on the lips, and then side stepping him to get into the bathroom. I heard him groan exasperated making me giggle as I jumped into the shower. When I finally got out of the bathroom, Christian was sitting at the edge of the bed; I saw that I was completely naked since I "forgot" to take my clothes that Taylor had left for us last night. I laughed lightly as I walked around the room picking up clothing and slowly putting them on.

"You are the devil," he says simply.

I laugh, "No I'm not," I slip on my jeans with just my bra on and sit on his lap giving him kisses all over his face, "I'm just showing off what's yours," I wink at him.

"Oh are you now," he growls, flipping me over so I'm under him, kissing, biting, and licking my upper body, making me giggle, but we were soon interrupted by a light knocking at the door, we both look up.

"What is it?" Christian asked his voice raspy.

"It's Elliot, mom's calling you two down to breakfast," Elliot replied at the other side of the door.

"We'll be down in a minute," Christian answers tickling me for the last time making me laugh out loud.

"No, mom said that you two will take longer if I don't wait here for you guys. Come on Christian, Ana, breakfast smells so good and if you two keep us waiting we'll run out," he whines like a petulant child.

"That's a lie, you know mom makes much enough to feed Seattle," Christian quips making me laugh.

"Don't worry Elliot, we'll get up now, Christian was just helping me with an itch," I say in the most serious tone I could muster, making Christian burst out laughing.

"I don't care, just hurry up!" Elliot sounding even more exasperated.

"We should go before he gets even angrier," I tell Christian, he nods. I quickly throw on a loose silk button down shirt.

"You look beautiful," Christian smiles as he opens the door.

"Finally!" Elliot says completely exasperated.

"Good morning to you too," I say laughing, patting his large arm.

"Aw come on Elliot, we were just celebrating," Christian pipes in, wrapping an arm around my waist as we descended the stairs.

"How are you two doing?" I ask in a quiet tone to Elliot.

He shrugs and shakes his head, "Kate's being really difficult, she's telling me that I'm keeping her from achieving her goals, but damn it's my family she's writing about."

I give him a weak smile, "I know what you mean, it's unethical, and I can talk to her if you want."

"Nah, it's okay, I doubt she'll see reason even if it's coming from you. Kate's been writing the little excerpts here and there, she's going to be writing an exposé of sorts, " he says shrugging; his shoulders slumped down in defeat.  
"Wait… You haven't permitted her to publish anything about our family, we never gave her permission to use the information found or said around her. This is a very delicate family matter, if she insists on being a cold-hearted bitch, no offense Elliot," Christian shakes his head, "we can go to the extreme and take her to court, though I don't think you'd want that," he gives a little smile, "or we could merely alienate her. It's more of a passive-aggressive way of dealing with the matter, but I believe it'll be a better show," Christian laughs; I think he's been in a more cutthroat mood as of late. "She's clearly not thinking about our family's best interest, we just won't talk about any specifics when she's around. It will frustrate her to no end and it will leave her with absolutely nothing news worthy," Christian simply states kissing my temple, then whispers in my ear, "I'm so glad that I met you not your ghastly friend Kate," I elbowed him chastising him for his comment. It's no secret of his clear distaste for Kate, but now it's not unfounded, she's hurting his family even if she couldn't see it herself.  
I don't know what Kate's problem is, she knows it's wrong to write about your boyfriend's family no matter what, if Elliot is as important to her as she claims that this shouldn't be a hard choice. I just hope she realizes it before it's too late.

When the three of us arrive in the kitchen Christian and I give Carrick and Grace hugs, happy that they're in their kitchen bustling around like any normal day, because I know in just under an hour they'll have to relive the whole ordeal once more. Sitting in between Christian and Elliot, Kate I was seated with her brother and Mia, far away from Elliot I look at her as she gives me a weird stare, maybe she expects me to take her side in all of this? Under any other circumstance I would, chicks before dicks right? But not about this issue, I don't think it's right for her to keep pushing it, when her boyfriend is clearly uncomfortable with it, career making news will always come around.

Our breakfast goes by fairly quickly, Grace had a very busy morning cooking and baking goodies to feed her family, there were blueberry muffins, pancakes, eggs, sausages, bacon, and stuffed French toast, and everything was so delicious. Things were still frosty between Elliot and Kate all throughout breakfast, since I was still talking to Elliot, which I think gave Kate the impression of the side that I chose. When did we go back to high school? Christian noticing the glares at our direction, continued his public displays of affection, giving me kisses every few minutes and rubbing my back. We had stayed in contact the entire time; I don't think we've even been apart for more than a few moments since my little naked dance around the room. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, I'm just glad I'm here with Christian. We're going to definitely have a very long conversation about the next few months and how he wants to deal with my work, but for now I'm completely content with the present; I laid my head on his shoulder while he traced circles on my arm.

"You two are a sight for sore eyes," Carrick looks at us happily, we just laugh at his comment, Christian I stayed in our little bubble, just enjoying everyone's company.

Our little breakfast was soon put to an end, the doorbell rang signalling the arrival of the FBI agents, we all stiffened a little as we got up from the dining table, Christian told Mia that it might be best for her, Kate, and Elliot to sit out on the questioning. He didn't need to explain any further, Mia just nodded her head and gave Christian a hug, I heard her whisper a _thank you_; Christian gave her a hug and a kiss on her cheek. Mia gave me a hug and whispered the same thank you, I returned her hug, and then detached ourselves; she turned to Ethan and Kate manoeuvring them away from the five us awaiting for Taylor and the two agents to arrive. I could hear Kate's enraged voice from the other room when she realized what was happening, I shook my head at the sound of my friend's rants embarrassed for her and her actions. Sawyer was ordered to keep an eye on the three of them, while the rest of us sat with the Grey's are to hear their statement.

We were ushered into the office, Carrick, Grace, Christian, and I were seated on one couch, and Elliot sat in the love seat next to Taylor as the two agents sat facing us on two leather chairs.

"Good morning Mister and Doctor Grey, my name is Agent Malone and this is my partner Agent Gallagher, we're here to get your account of your abduction," Agent Malone said professionally, he was a young man probably in his mid-thirties, with salt and pepper hair, light brown eyes, and of medium height, his partner had blond hair, green eyes, and probably around his early thirties.

"Let's start from the beginning?" Agent Gallagher said.

"Well…" Grace began.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: ****Hello my lovely readers! Here is another update, I didn't think I would be updating so soon, but here you go! I hope you enjoy it, thank you for everyone who reviewed, I'm sorry that I haven't gotten the chance to reply, I will very soon! :)**

**Also, thank you for all the new favourites and follows, I hope you all enjoy what comes out of my brain! Lots of love, I hope to have another update very soon sometime on the weekend or shortly after! xo**

**Part 13 **

"Well…" Grace began, "Riley and Randy were escorting myself and Carrick from our home to the store to pick up a few things for dinner. We were about twenty minutes away from our destination, when we were flagged down by a woman on the side of the road, she had looked like she was hurt badly, because there was blood all over her," Grace starts to heave lightly, Carrick nods and hold her tightly. "They didn't want to stop for her, but I pushed them to help, her out," she shakes her head and the tears fall down, "it's all my fault."

"Shh, darling," Carrick coos, "no one would have known."

"No, no it was my fault," she cries harder, it hurt me to see the guilt that she was harbouring. I know she was trying to shoulder the blame for something that probably would have happened if not then, then at some other time. I squeezed Christian's hand tightly, a silent conversation between us. We both knew it wasn't her fault at all, but because she was such a compassionate person she probably felt that way, I shook my head at the image that Grace had painted us.

"I'll continue, darling," Carrick says trying to soothe the distraught Grace, by kissing her temple and rubbing her shoulders, "we eventually stopped the car and Riley was the one who stepped out of the car. We sat there waiting to see how the girl was doing, but she pulled a gun and shot Riley," Carrick closes his eyes tightly and shakes his head forlornly, pauses for a brief moment, and then continues. "Randy immediately starts the car again and the other vehicle that was following us stopped abruptly, we heard four gunshots and the screeching of tires, making the three of us look back, but it only took a few seconds when another gun shot rang out, but that time it was much closer to us. We heard the screeching of our tires and at this point we didn't know what was happening we were being bombarded, Randy was yanked out of the car; two women and a man got in holding guns at our heads. They were yelling at us to not make any sudden movements, then man sat at the driver's side begins to start the car as the other women pushes us closer together, they put bags over our heads and tied our hands together, then the car starts again," Carrick shudders, "we drove for fifteen minutes," he sighs.

"How did you know how long?" Agent Malone asks. No one says anything as we wait with a bated breath for the story to continue.

"I counted for the moment we started driving," Carrick says simply, "when we finally stopped we were pushed out and dragged into a very quiet lot, there weren't very many sounds around, but I know we were near water."

"Yes, splashing and the boats," Grace nods her head profusely and wipes the tears from her eyes, "they finally took off the bags and tied us to some wooden chairs. The room was smelt of old fish and was poorly lit, that was when Elena came in, she started talking about Christian and Ana's relationship, how it was wrong and how she was the right person for him," she stops and shakes her head, "she was clearly delusional, she continuously talked about how Ana stole him from her, that they were happy. Elena kept saying that the only way we would get out of there alive, was if Ana returned what was rightfully hers," Grace looked at the two of us with a very sorrowful look. "They didn't do much after that; only a few people had kept coming in and out, if we didn't say what they wanted to hear we could get a punch and a cut here or there, but not much else." Grace paused closing her eyes and holding on to Carrick, "When Elena came back, she had finally called Christian for the terms, but she didn't want anything, but his attention."

"Elena should have known that she was going to get caught when she called in or was it what she wanted the entire time?" Christian pipes in.

"I don't know what her motives were, but soon after that phone call I saw that they had slipped a rohypnol…" Grace continues.

"Roofies?" I piped in.

"Yes," she says simply.

"But how did you know they were roofies?" Elliot asked.

"Because the water they gave us has that strong blue hue that comes from the dye that's in the capsule, they use to produce it only in white capsules, but when the manufacturer found out that they were prevalently used as date rape drugs, they began to make the pills in a hard coated green shells," Grace explained. "When we finally came to we were moved to a different location, a motel room.

"We were tied to the heating pipes in the corner of the room, the news was playing in the background, and the curtains were drawn so we didn't know if it was day or night. It felt like only a few hours had pass, but who really knows how long it was. Until the TV alerted us that it was 7:00 am, we had been held captive for at least eighteen hours. The only food they had fed us were some stale bread and that glass of water in the morning, they had us drinking that to knock us out and keep up disoriented."

"Yes, there was a large amount of the drug found in both of your blood stream last night," Agent Gallagher concurred as he looked through the folder he was reading from.

Grace and Carrick nodded, "There was a new girl that came in, she was young in her mid-twenties. She and the guy who had drove us to our first location, were arguing, I couldn't hear what they were saying, but it was getting pretty heated," Grace continued.

That was when Carrick stepped in, "Well, I was able to hear bits and pieces, not enough to find out what was wrong, but they kept repeating Elena's name and something about prison, the guy sounded worried, but the girl seemed unperturbed. A couple of hours later, the man came up to the two of us and told us that we were moving again, they blind folded us once more and carried us into another car, we drove from the motel to another location, but this time we drove for about an hour or so. We stayed in this abandoned lot for a few more hours, whenever we would speak out the girl would shoot near our heads," Carrick continues as Grace shivers at his words. I looked at Christian and Elliot, their faces completely devoid of any colour, I don't think they were even really breathing.

"There was no electricity so the room became dark when the sun came done, the only light we had was the moonlight that would stream through the broken windows. The man came later that night, I think it was time for dinner, but instead of feeding us our regular meal, he had crouched down and started untying our ties. He told us his name was Marcus and that he was going to get us out, we had no choice but to trust him, he seemed to have most humanity," Carrick commented as Grace concurred with a stiff nod, she still had a few tears falling. "He told us to be quiet as we tried to manoeuvre around the room without a sound, but that woman came into view, he motioned for us to fall back while he talked her. They were arguing about us, he told her to go and find some food for the two of them to eat that night, she agreed and walked away, when we heard the car start we ran for it.

"It was dark so we couldn't see a thing, we relied on the sound of our footsteps and the moonlight, I was holding Grace's hand the entire time as we ran out, when we finally reached a car he let us in first then tossed us the keys, he told us the directions on how to get to the interstate and finally get back to Seattle. Marcus told us that he would hold her off until we got far away enough, we started the car as he backed away, we told him to just come with us that so we could protect him," Carrick said sullenly, "he just shook his head and backed away further from the car, we were halfway out of the compound when we saw headlights at distance, we figured it was the girl coming back, so I drove faster. She looked right at us us as she drove, giving us this evil smile she shot at our car. I told Grace to duck as I drove faster, I heard another gunshot, but it wasn't aimed at us, it was at Marcus. From the rear-view mirror I saw his body slump to the ground, I didn't turn back again to see what happened next, we just drove. I knew she was following us, but we finally lost her when we got about fifteen minutes away from the Metropolitan police department. When they realized who we were, we were immediately taken to the hospital to get checked out."

"We identified the man, his name was Marcus Lawrence," Agent Gallagher added, "we will be investigating this kidnapping and Elena Lincoln's involvement. We can assure you this will be the last time she will ever bother you again."

"Thank you so much agents," Grace said wiping the last few tears.

"Oh Mr. Grey," Agent Malone turns to Christian, "we will find how deep this goes and we will find everyone involve, but please let us do our job. We don't need you to interfere with our investigation."

"You have my word," Christian says curtly, but that fake smile he was giving the two agents were forced, I know he'll find away around this.

"Thank you for your time, Mr. and Doctor Grey, we're very glad to know that you are safe, Mr. Grey here had us working around the clock to get you back," Agent Malone smiles warmly at the couple.

"Thank you for working so hard," Grace commented as we walked out of the study and into the foyer.

"Have a good rest of your day, we will contact you if we need anything more," Agent Malone says as he and Agent Gallagher walks out the door and into their car.

"You heard them Christian, no interfering," Carrick says patting his back as they closed the door.

"Dad, you know me, I would never obstruct the law," Christian gives me him a sly smile.

"Okay you two, that was a tough morning, how about we just relax and enjoy our time for now? Elena along with her underlings will go to jail for a very long time, she will be out of our hair very soon," Grace commented.

I gave the two of them hugs, I was glad that they were back, I know Christian no matter what will do whatever he can to make them all suffer, I can't say that I won't be satisfied with the outcome, but I just don't want him to get into trouble because of this. Though knowing him, it probably won't get into too much trouble. When I finally let them go, Mia comes barrelling into the room followed by a very sullen looking Kate who was sneering at Elliot and I, I shake my head at her as we follow the rest of the Grey's into the den.

xxxx

"Hey Kate, can I talk to you for a minute?" I asked. She looks at me with anger in her eyes, probably because she wasn't part of our little story-telling group, but really at this point there was something bigger than her ego and even though she didn't partake in the meeting in the office she should know better to not hold a grudge. She should also know better than to write a story about her boyfriend's family when he's explicitly forbade her.

"What could we have to talk about?" Kate spat.

I shake my head at her and lead her to an empty room away from the rest of the Greys, "What's up, this isn't like you to hold a grudge like this. You know it's wrong to write an article on the Greys."

"You wouldn't understand, you didn't just leave Christian, you left me and for what? Your stellar career as an actress," she softly laughs, I was about to say something but I knew she had much more to say so I let her speak her piece. "And all of this," she waves her hand around, "is your fault."

I scrunch my face, "What the hell? Kate, don't you dare place the blame on me."

She laughs a bit more, "Well, you leave and we finally have some sort of peace here, even though Christian was practically dying to find you, Elliot and I were happy, we even started talking about a family and the future. Then, Christian found a way back to you, and all hell all breaks loose; all for you."

"No, Elena is a psychotic bitch," Christian bellows making us both look in his direction, "this isn't Ana's fault at all, it was mine for keeping that bitch in my life."

Kate scoffs at him, "Always on her side, what about the time you came to our home late one night drunk crying about Ana."

I look at him on high alert, "Christian…"

"You knew I was torn up about us, I just grieved differently," Christian smiles lightly rubbing my back.

I take his hand in mine, "Kate, I just wanted you to know it's wrong to pursue this angle, you can't write about them, not only did they not allow you to, but for the sake of your relationship with Elliot. I know he loves and cares for you more than anything, and I don't know how long it will it take you to see that while you keep pushing the issue, the farther away from Elliot you're getting. You're letting him drift away from you, so you tell me is this article more important than your relationship with him? that man out there adores you, he thinks you walk on water and you're hurting his family, all for some news piece that will probably be forgotten in a few weeks. Don't make the same mistakes that I have, people don't always get second chances," I give her a sad smile and stand up with Christian in tow.

"You're amazing, do you know that?" Christian whispers in my ear.

"Why thank you Mr. Grey, you're not so bad yourself," I smile at him, "so what's the next step?"

"Well I plan on taking you home and having my way with you," he smirked.

"No, I mean with this whole ordeal."

"Well, Welch will still look into your network and see how far this goes, the case will see the judge very soon, and Elena will spend a very, very long time in jail along with anyone who was in direct contact with her during and before the kidnapping. She will remain in police custody until the trial with no bail; as for her accomplice they'll probably do a much less severe punishment, but they will get their comeuppance."

"Comeuppance?" I look at him, "Aren't you just the encyclopaedia, I don't think I've heard someone actually say that word in a really, really long time," I joke.

"And you thought you were the only walking encyclopaedia," he winks at me.

Christian leads me to the love seat near his parents with Elliot and Ethan arguing about the Mariners. The scene was so familiar and comfortable; it made me completely happy that the Grey's can finally have some semblance of peace within their family. Kate was the only one missing in our group, I could see Elliot looking around to see if she had finally joined us, but he was very much disappointed, the entire afternoon was spent just catching up since none of us have been in the same room for more than 8 months. We laughed and joked about my acting roles as I regaled them on the shenanigans that ensued while on set, Ethan and Mia told us about their impomptu trip to Aruba last month, Elliot talked about a new project he was working on, and Christian was discussing with his father about the new business ventures on the horizon.

xxxx

After dinner that night, we all decided to go to our respective homes, with a bittersweet farewell the Carrick and Grace we drove away from their home with smiles on our faces. Nothing like this will ever happen to our family again, Christian will make sure of that and I will be behind me for as long as he'll have me. While we drive I give each of his fingers a kiss as I look up at my mercurial fifty savouring this our quiet moment, because I know by tomorrow we will all be back on our daily grind.

But for tonight, it will be just the two of us in our very own perfect bubble.


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's Note:**** Hello friends! Merry Christmas this is my present from me to you! Thank you all for being patient, I know that I haven't replied to the reviews yet, but I will! I was going to post this last week, but there was a death in my family so I have been preoccupied. Thank you all for reading, lots of love and a happy holiday! Xo**

**p.s. The beginning is very citrusy! Watch out for your eyes!**

**Part 14**

When we arrive back home Gail comes and greets us happily giving me a hug.

"I'm so happy that they're safe," Gail gushes.

"Us too," Christian smiles, "you and Taylor should take the day off tomorrow, you two have been working too hard."

"Thank you, Mr. Grey," she smiles at him and giving me a kiss before departing.

"Now, Miss Steele, you have my full attention," he whispers in my ear and carries me into his bedroom.

"I want to play," I rasp.

"Mmmm as you wish, I left you something in my closet, it's in the La Perla box, put it on and come meet me in the playroom in five minutes," he orders in a stern voice making me quiver.

"Yes sir," I quickly go into his room and walk into the closet finding the box and inside was a little lace bustier and matching thong.

Once I had put the set on, I stood at the doorway of the playroom excitement building in the pit of my stomach, I haven't been in this room in a really long time, I'm happy that I could do this for him, although this is not at all one-sided. I definitely get more out of this then he thinks, I know a part of him believes that I only do it to please him, but I know that I truly enjoy it, it has nothing to do with a lack of respect, but something that we both love to partake in. I know initially I only did it to please him, but each slap and whip on my skin brought me a step closer to submitting him fully to him within the confines of this room.

I walked in quietly and took my position on the floor, the room was quiet for what felt like an eternity until I hear him enter the room- the light padding of his feet were slowly making his way to me. I could finally feel the heat reverberating from his body towards, my lust and me and longing were pooling between my legs. He grazed his finger across my shoulder blade so lightly it barely felt like it was there, he continued to run along my chest, up to my neck, and hooking his finger into my bottom lip opening it slightly. My breathing hitched and my body was erupting from his touch, I wanted to run my hands along his body to feel his soft and hard skin.

"You are so beautiful, so soft," he rasps in my ear as he caresses my skin, he begins to whisper softly, "I'm going to fuck your breasts tonight." I nod at his words, my breathing started to pick up and my excitement was quickly rising. Christian took off his favourite black flogger from its spot on the wall and walked back towards me, "I can't wait to see your breasts turn pink."

The anticipation began to build more and more, until he finally began whipping my breasts. One. Two. Three. Four. My skin started to warm and with every whip I was nearing my climax just by the flogger hitting my skin, after twenty hits, Christian starts to caress my already wet core making me moan out. He begins to unzip his pants and takes out his very erect penis making my mouth water; he rips his bustier from my back exposing my very pink breasts to him.

"Fuck Ana, those are so beautiful," he smiles as he begins to rub my nipples making them harder than they've ever been. He pulls my breasts tightly together and slams his penis between them, I've never felt something like this before, but this was amazing, just the feel of him like that made me want him even more, to taste him. He slams into me harder and I bend my head down taking his tip into my mouth and flicking his precum; he tasted so amazing.

"Ana, fuck," he yells out, "hold your breasts together, baby," he gasps, "you feel so fucking good." He rams into me harder until I could feel his balls tighten as it slaps onto my skin. After a few more rough thrusts he comes all over my chest, mouth, and chin. I greedily lick him clean and all the remnants of his cum. He smiles at me and grabs me by the hips and stands me up, kisses me roughly on my mouth, then picks me up and throws me onto the bed making me giggle when my head hit the pillow. His voice becoming stern again, "Spread your legs and your arms."

"Yes, sir," I reply my voice barely audible from my excitement.

He then begins to tie my arms and legs to the four posts of the bed spreading me completely wide for him, then blindfolds me, "We're going to play, baby," he whispers into my ear, I could hear him walking away form the bed, I then heard the drawers opening and closing, then finally walking back to me. He started touching my skin since I couldn't see him, but only hear him walking around the anticipation was building everywhere. I feel the bed dip from his weight and his body heat was warming my skin, I wriggle on the bed needing to feel his touch.

"Christian, please," I beg for his touch.

"Patience, Anastasia," he growls, he rubs his thumb over my clit and sticking a finger in, "you're so wet."

"Only for you," I gasp, I wanted more, I just wanted him, but I knew I had to be patient tor he would make my wait more unbearable.

"Anastasia I'm now going to put anal beads into you, I need you to relax completely," he says as he caresses my thigh, I haven't done any anal before, so I was a little bit apprehensive. Christian takes some of my wetness and rubs it from my clit to down to my ass, I clenched my thighs awaiting the beads, when he finally lubricates me thoroughly he slips the tip of the first anal bead in making me clench, "Is this okay? You have to relax baby."

I nod at him as he begins to enter them slowly, "I want you, Christian."

"Baby, you have to be patient," he says sternly making me wetter. Fuck this man turned me on so much.

Satisfied with the amount of beads, he begins to climb over my body so he was straddling my abdomen with his cock in between my breasts as he begins to massage each breast, I just wanted to touch him all over and run my tongue all over his body, tasting every inch of him. He kisses me roughly then gets off the bed, a few moments later he comes back, he slips something that feels like a dildo into my pussy filling me up, but not satisfying me enough, because it wasn't him. He steps away again and then whips me with the flogger across my abdomen taking me by surprise and jolting me up.

He begins to whip me all over my body, each time the flogger would make contact with my skin, my body would make my body crunch inward and making the dildo inside me slip in and out, but never falling out completely. My climax was building warming my body completely; he flogged me harder making me escalate into my ecstasy.

He quickly pulled the dildo out quickly making me whimper and then untied my legs free; he kept the beads in and then slammed into me roughly. He begins to plough into me, harder with each thrust grabbing my legs and holding them together as he lifts my bottom half while still fucking me hard. Christian takes off my blindfold and kisses me, running his tongue over my lips. Our eyes connected and he thrust into me a few more times, then my body erupted in the most intense orgasm I have ever had. He unties my hands then flips me on top, so I was riding him, I began to grind and bounce, running my hands around his chest, bending down kissing him and biting his neck as I bounced on top of him.

"Fuck Ana, you're so tight baby," he hissed.

"Oh, god, Christian," I yelled as I dug my fingers into his back as I came again. I smiled down at him as I got off him; I crawled down his body kissing every inch of his body while I run my hands around him. I worshipped his perfection, licking every part of his skin. I got in between his legs and looked up at him, his cock was already at half-mast, I give him a sweet smile as I took him all the way in my mouth. He began to thrust hitting the back of my throat, I could hear him growl while I play with his balls and start bobbing my head.

"Baby, I want to be inside you," he growls, he sits up and positions my body on all fours as he gets behind me and rams into my already wet pussy.

"Fuck Christian, so good," I moan.

He pulls my body up and presses mine against his as he slams into me, "Fucking love you, you're pussy's my home baby." I look back at him as he nips my neck; he steps off the bed while he was still inside me, "Baby I want you to hold yourself up."

I nodded at him as I positioned myself on the bed, he bends my legs on the crook of his arms as he slams into me, he would slowly slip out, but leaving just the tip inside, then slams back into me; he continues the slow torturous pace, teasing my orgasm.

"Christian, faster, please," I beg him.

He started to pick up the pace, but then slowed down painfully slow, and then picked up again, he was torturing me. He bites my back, then wraps his arms around my waist so my legs were dangling a foot of the ground, and he then begins to twist the beads around again. With every thrust he would twist the beads in, pushing me further.

"Baby, I want you to come," he growls while he thrusts harder into me.

"Oh, Christian… Fuck. Christian," I moan out, "I want you to come with me."

"I'm close baby," he nips my ear lobe and sends me into heaven. I couldn't breathe, my body was limp under him, and after a few silent moments we rolled into the bed.

As we lay in bed together trying to regulate our breathing, we stayed silent just wrapped in each other's arms.

"I love you, Miss Steele," he whispers, "lets go to bed."

"Mmm, love you," I say into his chest.

He laughs as he carries me into the bedroom; I was limp on his chest barely registering what was happening. "Goodnight, beautiful," he says as I drift off to sleep.

xxxx

I wake up really warm in his arms I stay silently unmoving just watching him sleep, I pepper tiny kisses on his face. I didn't know if he was going to work today, but I hope I could get him to not go in.

"Are you going to watch me sleep all day?" he whispers, but doesn't open his eyes.

"Yes," I said simply.

"What time is it?"

I look at alarm clock on the side table; it read 8:30 am, "It's early." He laughs lightly, "Are you going to work today?"

"Do you want me to?"

"No," I smiled at him, "I want to spend the day with you, just us."

"As you wish, baby."

"Good," I said with a grin, "are you hungry?"

"Yes, but can you stay in bed with me awhile?"

"Yes, it will be my pleasure," I say, we laid silently just listening to our breathing, "are we going to talk about what's going to happen to us?"

"What do you mean?" he gave me a confused look furrowing his eyebrows.

"My work," I say quietly.

"I will work with your schedule, I want this to work," he says into my hair, "I want to be with you and I will not waste any more time without you."

"Well, I have a pretty easy schedule the next month and a half, just a bit of travelling."

"I'll have your schedule sent to me and we'll work with it, don't worry about it," he reassures me.

"I love you, Christian."

"I love you too," I smile, taking his hand and dragging him out into the kitchen.

"You are my life now, work comes secondary," he says as he sits next to me.

"Christian, I don't want you to put our work on the back burner, I want to be with you just as much, I will work with your schedule too."

"Good, now, let's stop talking about this and get something to eat, beautiful."

xxxx

Our afternoon was spent relaxing together just being in each other's company was enough for us, we didn't even have to talk just as long as we were in contact each other in some way. We even got work done, Christian caught up with his emails and I worked out the kinks of my week, I still need to talk to him about going back to LA this week and all my travel days. Since I wasn't supposed to come home until tomorrow and my missed my photo-shoot, I will definitely have to do it this week. Then I won't be leaving for L.A. until the May 16th, then I'll be off to Paris a few days after that for some interviews, then to London on the 23rd to the 27th. My interviews are few and far between my Europe trip will probably be spent relaxing and sightseeing, I just hope that Christian will be able to fit all my travelling into his schedule, then I'll be doing a press tour all over North America for most of June until we start filming in Mexico on the 25th. My next month and a half is both relaxing and fast-paced, I truly hope that we can handle being apart, we were both spread out on the couch watching Gone with the Wind sharing a tub of very buttery popcorn.

Christian has his head on my lap while I feed us popcorn; I run my free hand through his soft unruly hair and massage his scalp. I wanted to capture this moment of us just being Christian and Ana, not Christian Grey the Mogul or Anastasia Steele the up and coming actress.

"I love you baby, I wish we could stay like this forever," he rasps out.

"Me too," I said a little melancholy.

"We'll have more days like this, I promise," he states.

"I hope so, I'm just worried about the next few months."

"Why? I thought that we had dealt with it already, we will work together to make it work."

"I know, but it's still going to be hard, on the 17th I'll be gong back to LA, then to Paris and London, after that a press tour, and then Mexico for two months," I sigh.

"Shhh, Ana, I've already gotten your schedule and I've already integrated with mine so we will only be apart for three days at a time."

"Really?" I said happily.

"Really, baby, when you come back to L.A. I will be with you until you leave for Paris, though you'll be there by yourself there, I will be joining you in London. I will be with you at every other location during the press tour, I'll try to work around it; I have brilliant people working for me so I know if I leave for a few days, my company won't be drowning," Christian says in a cocky grin.

"How about Mexico?"

"I'll fly out often, so that's no big deal, baby you're mine and I will never let you go again," he says in the most endearing voice that made me believe everything he was saying. His eyes had so much love that it was so overwhelming, I knew when I first met Christian he was going to be one of my greatest loves, but now knowing what I know, I will do anything for this man, he's undoubtedly my soul-mate.

Even though it's been a very rough road for us, I know we can get through it, together.

xxxx

I'm on the plane with Sawyer, Chon, and Chris en route to Los Angeles; I'll be here for the day for my rescheduled photo-shoot. The last few days I had spent with Christian were pure bliss, no ignorance needed, he's been so loving and caring, not that he wasn't like that before, but now it's almost like he missed me so much that he couldn't get enough of me. Before we left I had an early breakfast with him, but he was acting a bit anxious, maybe it's because he hadn't been as engrossed with his work with me around and now that I was finally leaving for the day he will bury himself in work. I hope so; I really don't want him to put his company on the backburner just for me, just like he wouldn't expect me to do that with my work.

As the plane descends into L.A.X., I didn't bother packing anything with me since I wouldn't even be staying the night and will be leaving at 5 p.m. tonight. The moment I step out of the terminal I send Christian a text that I had landed safely, not expecting him to text back I quickly put my phone back into my bag. Getting into the awaiting town car that will take me straight to the location.

Throughout the day I have been checking my phone, but no word from Christian at all, though Carlos has texted and called me countless of times. I know he was deemed clean, but I'm still a bit apprehensive with the entire situation, and maybe Christian was right when he said that I should look for new representation. He offered to deal with that and even wanted to lend me someone from his staff to act as my stand-in assistant; I graciously declined and said that I candeal with my schedule until I found someone fit.

When we finally wrap for the day, I had been plucked, pulled, and scrubbed, I felt completely raw. I climbed into the awaiting car that would take us back to L.A.X., I still hadn't heard from Christian, and now I was feeling a lot more anxious. I didn't want to seem like a clingy girlfriend, but he's _never_ just forgotten to text at least once throughout the day even when he was dealing with his parents' kidnapping. As I was boarding the plane I had knots forming in my stomach, I had called and messaged him before I had even boarded. I waited for the very last possible moment until I had to shut it off, but still nothing. I didn't know if I should be annoyed, worried, or angry, although my brain kept telling me that I had to remain rational, I still believed the worse. What if he had been kidnapped? What if something was wrong back in Seattle, but come to think about it, Sawyer would have definitely said something if there was anything. He would at least try to tell me that we shouldn't go back home if there was anything amiss.

The next hour and half was spent on pins and needles, I didn't know what I was walking into, but I know I had to keep a level head. We drove slowly back to Escala, I hadn't talked to anyone about my worries and they hadn't informed me of anything, so I really had to remain calm as the elevator ascended.

The last ping alerted me to Christian's floor, I took a large breath having no idea what I was going to witness, but when I stepped into the dimly lit room my body tensed. Something was happening, I wasn't sure if it was good or bad, even though there weren't many people who lived with Christian, his floor was completely silent. There were no footsteps or quiet conversations being had, it was complete silence. I noticed that the three had not joined me inside which filled my rampant mind with worse case scenarios, but I know deep down that they would never leave my side unless instructed.

I walked a bit more into the great room, calling Christian's name, but receiving no answer. I could see a faint light coming from the library so I followed it, when I walked quickly to the library the sight inside made me drop to my knees; cementing me to the floor.


	15. Chapter 15

**Author's Note****: HAPPY, HAPPY New Year! I hope you enjoy this update. I know I've kept you guys waiting for longer than a week, but I hope this was worth it! xo**

**Part 15**

The sight before my eyes made my breathing hitch and my brain turn to complete mush. There standing before me in a pool of red and white rose petals stood my handsome Christian Grey, once our eyes locked he gave me a nervous yet sincere smile. I wasn't sure why there was trepidation in his eyes, maybe it was because for a good minute I just stood on the threshold of the room unregistering what was happening, once I gained my wits about me I slowly walked up to him. I had various ideas as to why this was happening, but I didn't want to get my hopes up if it wasn't what my mind was hoping for. When I was only a foot away from him, I could feel his breath on my face, he gives me a light kiss on my lips then bends down on one knee. My heart completely stops and my hands start shaking.

Was he really doing this? Was _the_ Christian Grey, the man who didn't want any sort of a relationship let alone a marriage, actually proposing to me? I've thought about my future with him many, many times, but not in my wildest dreams did I think that he would on his own free will actually propose. I tried to steady my breathing as he looked into my eyes, his hands were shaking just a tiny bit showing just how nervous the man before me really was. He was showing me he was human.

"Anastasia Rose Steele, from the day I met you I knew there was something about you that immediately pull me to you. At first sight it was completely physical, but when we talked for the first time I knew it was so much more. You are beautiful, intelligent, witty, charismatic, and strong, you are everything I could have ever hope to find in someone. You enable me to be myself; I don't need to be the CEO, but to be a mere man, _your_ man. I fell in love you within the first few days of our beginning; I just didn't know it yet. You are my life, my love, and my family you. You alone make me a better man." He smiled weakly up at me, "I will never put anyone before you; you have my trust and my heart. So from this day forward I want you to be mine forever," he says to me as his eyes exude the deepest love. "I know that you're worried about your work interfering with mine, but I know that you don't have to, I will always try to make us work.

"I want to give you the world, baby. I know I can be over-bearing, but you've always been able to manage that," he laughs lightly as he continues on, "I also know that you are the one for me, no one will ever come between us, because we can always be honest with each other no matter what. I love you Ana and you have my heart, so with that being said will you please do me the greatest honour of being my wife?"

My heart began to beat faster with every word he had spoken, the man before me was not the man I had met that long ago. Christian is a different man, a man that deserved all of me. I gave him a large smile and got down on my knees to face him. I grab his face between my eyes and whispered a, "Yes," as I kissed his lips with a smile. He wraps his arms around me and pulls me onto his lap.

"I love you so much."

"I love you more," I say as he cradles me into his arms.

"That's impossible," he smiles as he slips in the largest diamond ring I have ever seen. It was a platinum band with a large emerald cut diamond nestled in the middle of smaller diamonds wrapped around the entire band.

"Christian, wow, this too much," I said as I felt the weight of the ring on my finger, this thing was heavy!

"Nothing less for my wife," he smiles at me, "the inside has my name and yours with the infinity sign engraved."

"You are the most amazing man I have ever had the pleasure of meeting, Mr. Grey, how did I get so lucky?" I ask as I kiss the tip of his nose.

"No, I'm the lucky one, what you do for me is so much more, baby, you make me live and actually enjoy my life," he kisses me passionately.

"I guess we're both lucky to have each other," I smile at him as he carries me to our bedroom.

We spent the rest of the weekend making love and taking long bubble baths, we turned off all of the electronics and just got lost in each other. When Monday finally rolled around Christian went into work early, since he's pretty much been M.I.A. for the last couple of weeks and had Ros running things over at GEH. Christian was so busy that the only interaction we had that entire day was a couple of messages back and forth, but other than that things from his end were pretty quiet.

After I had gotten my flights and schedule figured out, I called up Grace to let her know that I was back in town and I would love to see her. When she answered she was so gleeful and even said that she would cook some lunch for us, before I left I put my engagement ring around a chain around my neck so she wouldn't become suspicious. When Sawyer, Chon, and I stepped out of the elevator the two sat at the front of the black Audi while I was situated in the back. After we began driving my brain began wandering around my life in the last few months and imminent wedding to Christian, which always placed a silly grin on my face.

Christian and I are planning on telling everyone at dinner at Escala, we had already ivited everyone to come, which they all were very excited about. They believe it was just a goodbye dinner for me since I'll be travelling awhile, which was a perfect excuse. Christian and I have even talked about Carlos, I was thinking that we should keep him since he turned out clean. I had called Carlos last night to have him come up here, but his voice was full of trepidation when I had asked to make the trip and not inform Jane that he was doing so.

We found out that Jane was in the outer circle of Elena's scheme, though she didn't have anything to do with the kidnapping of the Greys', she still played a role to get to me. Now, how she was bought was the mystery, but in all honesty I didn't much care to find out why. Christian already has plans to fire her and drag her name through the mud. On the subject of Carlos, Christian still seemed rather apprehensive, he wanted to completely clean house, but I had to reason with him that in the middle of everything this summer we just couldn't afford to look for another agent/ manager while I continued to travel. Since Christian only really used the managerial card to get to me initially he has so much on his plate that I know he needs to step down, with running GEH and the on-going investigation involving Elena and her evil minions who infiltrated my life, he really did not have enough time to micromanage me.

So now we were on a search for a trustworthy publicist, manager/ agent, and personal assistant; the holy trinity as we called it. Although Ros is his second in command will be taking over the reins with that endeavour only because Christian really had to get his head in the game and iron out a few deals that couldn't have been made without him. We eventually compromised much to Christian's dismay, it's been decided that we would keep Carlos until after the summer while Christian stands down and will only look at my weekly schedules. When I finish the movie this September we will let him go, then we will assimilate the new 'holy trinity' into my life, in the meantime one of Christian's assistants will come and work for me as my P.A. During all that we still have to figure out a wedding and our honeymoon, Christian insisted that he handle that, while we have someone plan our wedding, which I honestly was okay with. Don't get me wrong I want to get married, but in all honesty if we got married in the courthouse I would be happy, because him and I will be husband and wife. All I ask is for it to be simple and small, I hope that I get what I want.

Since my work was under control I will able to relax for the last few days I was in town, Ray, Carla, and Bob were all flying down here too. Only my father had met Christian, mom and Bob were yet to meet the infamous man in my life, and to top it all off none of them had met any of the other Greys before so coupling that with our engagement announcement is a little more than nerve-racking. I wish I could talk to Kate about this, but the woman has not replied to any of my messages, I even tried talking to Elliot, but even he didn't know what was up with her. I eventually gave up and hoped that she would come to our dinner tomorrow I just wanted her to get passed this and end all of the drama.

I had learned last night that Christian had actually went to go see my father to ask for his permission, that was partially why he hadn't been in contact with me all day. Just the thought he had gone through so much trouble made me fall even harder for the man, he was even able to deal with Ray's fury and was eventually granted permission.

My father was definitely shocked when Christian had showed up at his doorstep, I mean Ray didn't even know that we had gotten back together, let alone considering marriage. He was so angry that he even took out his gun and tried chasing him off his property, which made me laugh a little thinking about the image of Ray aiming his rifle at Christian. It's only funny because I know he would never actually shoot him, I think when Christian and I got together Ray missed the whole gun cleaning show he always put on when a boy would come around the house. Even when I left for L.A. Ray was so angry that he thought I was running away from home because of Christian. That thought alone made him want to hunt him down, until I told him that I was the one who the one who broke up with him, I think that it appeased him quite a bit.

Ray has always been a stoic man, when he first saw me on TV and then eventually my name on a movie poster he almost passed out, he never really got used to the thought of me seeing me on the his TV let alone the big screen. When I received my first role he was the first one I called, his only deman was that I promise him that I would never get naked in front of the camera and if I ever did that I had to inform him so he wouldn't accidentally see something he shouldn't.

Carla was completely different, she wanted to come to every movie premiere or signing I was involved in, she even tried to get on to set with me every time her and Bob would come and visit me. After those weeklong visits by my mom I was exhausted and almost happy when she left. I know she was just excited for me, but it was honestly tiring when I had to constantly explain why she couldn't always accompany me everywhere… and trust me she tried.

Thinking about my job and all that I was about to get into I had to ask myself if I was actually happy doing this. This was never anything I aspired to become. I mean don't get me wrong I love watching movies, but I never wanted to be in them. Although as a child whenever I would watch a movie I would always pretend to be the heroine and act it out, maybe subconsciously I wanted to act?

Nonetheless when I arrived at the Greys' estate I wiped my brain of all thoughts of work and walked into the large foyer where Grace happily greeted me. She quickly ushered me into the backyard where we will be having our lunch, the sun was out brightening up the large backyard. We were enjoying being in each other's company as we sip on our drinks while we waited for lunch to be served, Grace began talking about taking the rest of the week off and I was very happy that she wasn't showing visible signs of post-traumatic stress disorder.

"Are you really okay, Grace?" I asked taking my sunglass off and placing them on top of my head, when I see her fidgeting a bit while looking around paranoid.

"Oh, Ana," she gives me a small smile, "I'd be lying if I said that I was all right. Carrick and I have begun seeing someone to work out what happened, if I keep busy it doesn't replay in my head as often."

"I'm so sorry that it happened, Christian really worked everyone to the bone just to try and find you," I said as I walked up and took the empty seat right next her, wrapping her in a hug as she begins to cry.

"I heard what you tried to do, thank you Ana, you know I already consider you as a daughter," she says into my shoulder as the tears fall down. "This wasn't your fault."

"I know, it's hers and I know Christian will stop at nothing to get justice for what they did to you two."

"You've always been so strong, I've always thought that you were made for Christian, you were always able to figure him out and work through all of his issues. Even anticipate what he needs, for that I'm eternally grateful," she says, when Heidi comes out with the food I motion for her to stop and wait. She nods her head and walks back into the house quietly. "Ana, I replay the whole ordeal every night, I have nightmares about being taken from my bed or Carrick getting shot. I can't even get into a SUV because the memories flood back again."

I hold her to me tighter, "Grace, you know that's normal, I'm glad that you can talk to me about it and I'm really happy that you and Carrick will be going to see someone." I rub her shoulders as I let her cry, "You don't have to stay strong for us, you can be angry and lash out we will understand."

"But Carrick is taking it so well," she sobs.

"That may be, but he's going through the same things as you are. You don't need to be strong for us; I know that's how you've been feeling. I've seen you act like this was no big deal, but it is. It is a huge deal, Grace. It's hurting you to pretend to be okay, so please stop if not for you then for us."

"No, I have to do it for you all."

"No you don't, trust me it will hurt you more in the long run if you don't let everything out now. The pain won't last forever, what you went through was traumatizing and it will probably stay with you forever, but I promise it will hurt less."

"Thank you," Grace says finally lifting her head off my shoulder, "you know you're the only one out all of my kids who have actually sat down and really talked to me," she laughs lightly. "I think they're so scared that I will just blow up that they don't actually ask any questions. I think they expect me to jump right in and be their mother and that alone makes my heart break, it feels like I'm failing them."

"They don't expect you to jump right in and be right as rain," I say as I take her hand in mine, "I just think they don't know what how to act around you. They don't want to hurt you even more so I think that they treat you the same, because they think if they don't they'd be causing you pain by bringing it up."

"You're right," she gives me a small smile.

"But you should talk to them and tell them what you're going through, you could probably even arrange for the five of you to have a group session. I know it's affected all of them differently and it would be really good if you could all see where they're coming from," I said as I return a smile.

"Will you come?" she asks hopeful.

"If you'd like, but I will be leaving Thursday of this week, can we possibly do it this Wednesday?"

"Of course, I'll call Carrick now, I think he's in his study we can talk about it during lunch," she springs back up and walks into the house. I could her faintly greeting someone inside. A few minutes pass when I feel a tight a hug from behind, making me jump slightly.

"I'm so glad you're here," Mia exclaims as I wrap my arms around hers.

"Hey!" I said happily.

"When did you get here?"

"Not too long ago, I called to come visit your parents."

"Good, mom's acting a bit weird," she says sadly, the usually ball of energy has somewhat depleted. "She acts like nothing's happened, but the whole house can hear her screaming," she says with a sad look in her eyes, "plus she bakes like a madwoman."

"We just talked about that, I think she'll talk to you soon," I smile at her taking my original seat next to her.

"So you're a big time actress now," she nudges me on my side.

"Yeah, I'm sort of a big deal," I laugh.

"I heard from Christian that you're completely booked solid this summer and I even read in the gossip column about you working with Samuel Somers! He's so hot!"

"Yes, he's good looking, but he's such an asshole. The prick kissed me at a party!"

"Was it good?" she asked with a far off look in her eyes.

"Mia! No it wasn't, plus you have Ethan to daydream about."

"I know, I know, but he is my celebrity crush. Ethan and I have a top three fuck list."

"Fuck list?"

"Yeah, it's where if we ever are able to sleep with any celebrity on our Fuck list we can without any repercussions," she said wistfully, "don't you have one?"

"No… Christian would probably lose his mind."

"Yeah, he probably would," she giggles, "but between the two of us who would be on your list?"

I raised my eyebrow at her, "Seriously? No one, Christian is hotter than any actor in Hollywood. If I had a fuck list Christian would take all three spots."

"Ahem," Grace says as her and Carrick walk back out, I wonder how much they had heard. I immediately turn red while Mia is laughing her ass off next to me.

"Mom, daddy, don't worry, we were just talking about celebrity crushes. Apparently Ana, here doesn't have any."

"None at all?" Grace says as inquisitively.

"None that I can think of," I answer honestly as I keep my head down low.

"Well I find Robert Redford, George Clooney, and Gerard Butler, pretty handsome."

"Grace!" Carrick exclaims.

"Oh darling, you know you're the only one for me," she coos as she nuzzles his neck. Mia feigns disgust as I smile at the two's interactions, I hope Christian and I have this much love at their age.

After an amazing lunch and a lovely afternoon spent just talking together. I gave the three of them long hugs as we said our goodbyes and started driving back home. Christian was due to arrive at seven which will be about two hours later than us, I wanted to surprise him with some dinner.

Arriving at home I told Gail that I wanted to cook dinner tonight, she decided that since she and Taylor would have the night off that they were going to have dinner out. I decided I'd have hummus and pita with Greek salad to start, baked herb-encrusted chicken with asparagus, and rice pilaf as the main, and after for dessert a chocolate cake. I know it doesn't make any sense to have the cake, but it's Christian's favourite and I do love pleasing my man.

I'm grateful that Gail keeps the pantry and the fridges completely stocked so I didn't have to go out and pick anything up. While the chicken was marinating and the rice started it's slow cooking, I began prepping the cake and while I popped into the other oven, then I started on the icing. Once the two layers of cake were cooling, it was already 5:45, I popped the chicken in the oven, and then started poaching the asparagus in lemon and butter, and at 6:30 the chicken was finally ready. After I frosted the cake, all the food plated and sitting under the warmer, I quickly ran to the shower and freshened up trying hard not to get my hair wet. I threw on a pair of skinny jeans and a black top, putting on just a little bit of make-up, I ran downstairs to set up the breakfast bar where we would be eating. I lit two long stem candles, turned on some jazz music, and then dimmed the lights.

At exactly 7:02 pm Christian arrived with Taylor in tow, I run to meet them at the elevators, I told Taylor that Gail had to talked to him and then dragged my handsome fiancée in the opposite direction. Christian tucked me under his arm as we walked into the kitchen; there he saw the setting. I looked up at him and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek, I sit him down on the stool as I brought out our starter, instead of having two plates I thought it would be nicer to just to feed each other from the one large plate. After our first course, I popped open a bottle of wine as I served him dinner.

"You did all of this?" he asked astonished.

"Yes," I gave him quick kiss on his lips.

"I told you that you should relax while you're here."

"I know, but I really wanted to do this for you, Christian, you always take care of me. Now it's my turn."

"I think it's the other way around, baby." After I cleared the plates, I brought out our entrees and we quickly started eating, he would moan every once in awhile in appreciation for my food. "Ana, I will never let you go."

"I would never want to leave."

As we finished off the bottle of wine and dinner, I cleared our place setting only leaving the candles and two forks. I brought out the cake, a knife, and one side plate, as I placed it in front of him his eyes grew big.

"How did you have time to do all of this?"

"Didn't you know? I'm Wonder Woman."

"You definitely are," he whispered in my ear as he began trailing soft kisses along my jaw, soon the kisses started becoming more frantic, but it was short lived because within a few minutes he pulled away. "Sorry baby, but I really want some of your cake."

I laugh, "Then you shall have cake."

We devoured two slices and kept exclaiming that it was best cake he had ever had.

"May I have this dance," he asks, standing up and holding his hand for me to take.

"Yes," I smile as he presses his body onto mine and we begin dance slowly to the music.

"I love you so much, Ana," he whispers into my hair.

"I love you too, so much," I say into his chest, "I'm scared Christian."

He stops for a moment tilting my head to look at him, "Why are you scared?"

"Of not being together."

"We are together," he says furrowing his eyebrows.

"I know Christian, I'm just scared of missing you so much, I don't know how I'm going to handle it," I explained, "at this point I don't want to be away from you."

"I know, baby, me too."

"I'm just going to miss you so much," I said burying my head into his chest, "it's different now, I won't be in L.A. I'll be in Europe! Just thinking about that makes the ache harder."

"We'll be together soon, you know that."

"I do."

"Well I'd love those two words said not so sadly next time," he teases making me smile, "let's not talk about that until Wednesday night, right now we're just Christian and Ana."

"Okay, I like the sound of that."

After a few moments he stopped dancing, "Where's your ring?"

It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about then the realization hit, "I didn't want your family to get suspicious so I put it on a necklace," I explained as I took the long gold chain off and unlatching so I could take the ring.

"Good, I thought you had already lost it."

"Christian," I narrow my eyes at him," I would never, ever lose this. You'd have to take it off my cold dead finger."

"Hush," he says, "I don't ever want to talk about you being cold and dead," he pauses. "All I want is for you to be warm and alive all the time." With that he throws me over his shoulder and carries me into the bedroom making me giggle. "Actually, Ana, I don't think I like that at all. You have to be punished," he wiggles his eyebrows at me making me jump.

After I was thoroughly and deliciously punished we laid in the bath together.

"When do you want to get married baby, I think we should set a date," Christian says as he washes my back.

"As soon as possible, Christian, I want to get married to you tomorrow or even now if you could find a judge who would," I say turning my head to face him.

"Ana, we will only get married once and we have the means to have everything you've ever dreamed of. Baby if you wanted lions and elephants to usher the guests, that would be possible," he says as he nibbles on my neck.

"Christian that is ridiculous, you know I wouldn't want anything like that. If anything I want to ride in on a unicorn," I say making us both laugh.

"Well baby, I could make that happen if you really wanted it," he laughs, "but in all seriousness."

"Alright, well my schedule is clear by Tuesday, October 8th," I say sadly.

"Then October," he says, "How about the thirteenth which I believe is a Saturday."

"I want to be married to you now, Christian, I know I'm being difficult, but I want nothing more."

"I think we could make this work," he smirks at me.

I eye him suspiciously, "What are you thinking about in that beautiful head of yours?"

"Well, _Miss_ Steele, I would want nothing more than to make you my wife and I agree with you. So I have an idea that I think would remedy that, you want simple, yes?"

"Yes," I answer.

"Good," he gave me a cocky grin, "baby I think we should get married when you get back from your press tour, you have at least five days before you fly down to Mexico. It would be perfect."

"Really!?" I exclaim, "I would love that."

"Good, it will probably be just you and I. If I invite Elliot to be our witness there is a good chance that everyone will know."

"Christian you're the best!"

He chuckles, "All I want is to see you happy, baby. My parents and Mia will be pissed, but we could just keep it a secret. We can hire a planner for our October wedding, but baby that one will be very large," he warns.

"That's fine, as long as we get our simple one."

"Good, but Ana I will handle our honeymoon."

"All yours, handsome," I smile at him.

As the night draws on we continue to lovingly wash each other until our skin began to start resemble prunes. Christian then, lays me in bed and continues to hold me for the rest of the night whispering the sweetest things as I drift off to sleep. This was the man I love, always and forever.


	16. Chapter 16

**Author's Note: ****Hello friends, sorry for taking too long to update, but here it is! School has just started so I don't know when my next update will be, but be assured it will be soon-ish! Lots of love xo**

**Part 16**

Tuesday came and I still hadn't heard from Kate, but Elliot told me that she might show up tonight. I think the two of them sort of patched things up, Elliot and I have been texting every day, because he really wasn't sure how he should approach the whole Kate issue. I think he's now a bit weary staying in a relationship with her because of what she was willing to do for some story, but I told him that he needed to relax and think before he did anything drastic. That was last week, last I heard Kate came to talk to him last Friday and they were 'working it out'.

Carlos arrived this morning too he's staying at the Fairmont and was suppose to arrive for dinner with the rest of our guests. We hired a chef to cook dinner so Gail and Taylor can have the night off and join us for dinner. My parents arrived this morning and are on their way here, Christian is busy at work so he wouldn't be here to take them around Seattle. Lucky. I planned on taking them around downtown Seattle in the morning and then in the afternoon back to Escala to get ready for dinner.

"Ana, dear!" my mom yelled from the great room.

"Mom, how are you? Bob, dad!" I ran to them giving each large hugs.

"How are you doing Ana?" dad asked, giving me a knowing smile. Christian had asked him to keep our engagement a secret until tonight when we announce it; I know when my mom finds out that he knew before she did it will cause a large scene.

"I'm doing great, daddy," I exclaim, returning his smile.

"When are you going back to Los Angeles?" mom asks.

"On Thursday," I say sadly, but quickly try to push away my bad mood away, "let's head out, we have lots to do."

The day went by quickly, my mom was her usual chatty self, Bob was quiet, and dad was silent and observant as we went out on our tour of the city. In the afternoon my parents went back to their hotel and I went back home, when I arrived the table had already be made and the aromas from the kitchen were delicious. I had talked to Christian earlier today before he went into another meeting, he said that would be home by six so he had ample time to get ready before the guests arrived at 7:30.

I had texted Kate again, but still hadn't gotten a reply, the article that had been published in the paper about Grace and Carrick wasn't written by Kate. I was happy that she didn't go through with it, but I didn't know how much of that was of Christian's doing. He had persuaded the editor to take Kate off the article the very next day after the Greys had been found; I think there was something about buying the newspaper and firing his ass. I would have handled that a bit differently, but it got the job done. I understand where Kate was coming from, but it doesn't make it all right. Now she's not speaking to me, I don't even think she's ignored me for this long. Kate and I didn't fight, _ever_. I understood her crazy whims and her personality, which could be hard to take at times. She was my outgoing persona and the craziness that I was never capable of when we first met in university; we balanced each other out. But now, it's over, well I hope not, but I doubt she would forgive me, since she believes that I had taken the Grey's side. I did, but for good reason, she was trying to hurt our family. And that's what we are, a family.

Climbing into the shower I scrubbed down and got ready for dinner. I dressed in a black A-line sleeveless Versace dress that came just a couple of inches above my knee, I paired it with a pair of red Monolos and headed out the door. I was having a meeting with Carlos about this summer and he's been pretty suspicious about the Jane issue.

Christian, Elliot, Mia, and I are joining Grace and Carrick, when Grace and I talked yesterday she was still really nervous about asking their kids, but when she asked everyone was all in. I mean Christian was no stranger to counselling so he thought that us being there to sort through it all with them was a good idea.

"Ana, Carlos has arrived," Gail says as she peaks through the door.

"Thanks Gail," I smiled at her, "can you just let him in."

"Of course," she gives me a knowing smile and lets Carlos in.

"Ana!" he exclaims.

"Carlos! How are you?" I asked as I stood up and gave him a hug.

"You look amazing," he says taking a seat.

"Thank you, you too."

"So when did you and Christian get together?" he asked.

"We were together before I moved to L.A., we broke up, and then we sort of just got back together."

"I think there's more to that story."

"It's the abbreviated version," I smiled at him.

"I'd love to know more," he smiles at me, the man is looking for all the dirty details.

"A lady never kisses and tells," I said trying to brush his question off.

"Ah that may be," he laughs quietly, "so why did you ask me to come here since you're scheduled to come home this Thursday."

"Christian wanted to speak to you and we're making an announcement tonight," I give him a large smile.

"Why not on the phone?"

"It was important."

"Of course it was," he scoffs.

"It is," I say raising an eyebrow at him.

"Knock, knock," Christian says as he walks into the room.

"Christian!" I exclaimed running into his arms.

"Hey baby, I've missed you," he whispers into my ear, he kisses me passionately running his tongue over my lips. I pull him closer to me wrapping my arms around him.

"I've missed you more," I whisper when we finally break apart.

"Hi, Christian," Carlos interjects.

"Hello Carlos, glad you could make it," he answers, he then takes my hand and led us to the couch so we could speak to Carlos.

"Yeah, me too."

"We have to talk about what's happening with Anastasia's summer, Jane has been fired because of her less than wholesome extracurricular activities," Christian says in his domineering voice.

"What sort of activities?" Carlos asked his interest heightened.

"Aren't important, I just wanted to reiterate what we had talked about not too long ago. Now we scoured your background and you somehow came clean, not clean enough that it makes you look suspicious, but clean."

He looks at us in disbelief, "You looked into my background?"

"Did I stutter?"

"Christian," I cooed placing my hand on his thigh, "relax."

He nods at me and then continues, "Carlos, I do it to all my employees, you'll be spending the entire time with Anastasia so it's even more imperative."

"I understand," Carlos nods his head.

"Good, well I have to get ready for dinner, Ana?" Christian asked.

"Okay," I said smiling up at him. Christian and I stand up with Carlos and escort him out of the library.

"Did I tell you how beautiful you are?" he whispers into my hair.

"Not today."

"Well then, you're beautiful."

"Thank you," I giggle.

When we drop off Carlos off in the living room where Taylor sat, I gave him a quick smile and walked hand in hand with Christian to the room. He cracks his neck and walks in.

"Long day?" I asked.

"Yes," he groans sitting on the bed.

"Here let me make it better," I kneel behind him and start massing his shoulders, every once in awhile he would moan and exhale. I slowly undressed him so my fingers were touching his well-muscled back, "Mmm you are so sexy."

"Hmm I think that would be you," he says huskily. He quickly flipped me over and started running his hands all the way down my legs, "You have beautiful… everything."

Christian begins kissing and nipping my toes, working his way up my legs, slowly placed open mouth kisses behind my knees making me arch my back. When he made it up my thigh he blew into my already very wet slit.

"Christian, we don't have time," I breathed.

"Who cares," he laughs as he takes my very wet panties off.

"Seriously, Christian," I half-heartedly begged.

"No," he says huskily burying his face in between my thighs, "you taste fucking amazing. Do you want a taste?"

"Uh huh," I whimpered, while he climbs up my body and sticks his tongue in my mouth, massaging my tongue with his.

"Mr. Grey," Taylor says while knocking at the door.

"Fuck," he hissed, "let's just ignore him."

"We can't Christian, what if it's important?"

"Nothing's more important than your legs wrapped around my neck."

"Christian," I say lightly slapping on his back, "let's go."

"No," he rasps.

"Mr. Grey," Taylor says a bit more sternly.

"Just pretend he's not there," Christian whispers into my thigh giving it a bite.

"Christian!" I yelled.

"It's important Mr. Grey," he says again.

"Fine," he sighs, burying his head on my thigh. "Bunch of cockblockers," he mutters under his breath making me giggle as I straighten my dress and pick a fresh new pair of underwear. "Don't put any on."

I raise my eyebrow at him, "Mr. Grey, what do you have in mind?"

"You'll see," he says giving me a huge grin as he opens the door, "what is it?"

"Sorry, Mr. Grey, Miss Kavanagh is here to speak to you."

"She can wait until dinner," Christian laughs.

"Miss Kavanagh says that it's pertinent she speaks to you before."

"We'll be out momentarily," Christian replies to Taylor and closes the door. "Stupid bitch," murmurs under her breath.

"Christian, stop, at least she's speaking to you," I admonish him, wrapping my arm around his waist, "just get ready and then talk to her before dinner."

"Alright," Christian concedes, "has she spoken to you?"

"Not at all," I say a bit forlornly.

"It's okay, you can come with me to talk to her," he says kissing my temple as he gets into the shower and I sit on the chair next to shower.

"I don't think that would be a good idea," I said crossing my legs.

"Well, I want you there."

"If you insist," I said a bit hesitantly.

"I do, we're a team remember?" he says as he quickly gets out of the shower in all of his naked glory. His body was the most amazing sight, well-defined strong muscles, broad shoulders I can't believe this man is mine. Whenever he moved his muscles would flexed, so while he drying off I had the most astounding view.

"Let me," I say walking up to him and grabbing the towel. I wiped his shoulders, his arms, his waist, and legs; lingering on his very large erection poking through the towel. I bit my lip forcing myself not to touch.

"You're such a tease," he laughs.

"We can't, we're already taking too long," I sigh standing up and handing him his black boxer briefs.

"I know," he groans.

"But after tonight, I promise."

"I want you for dinner," he winks, walking away from me and out of the room. I inhaled trying to get my bearings.

"I love you," I say as I walk out and into the bedroom.

"I love you too," he says, giving me a crooked grin.

"Should I wear my ring?"

"Maybe wait before the announcement."

I pout a little, "I can't wait until I don't have to hide it anymore."

"Me too, but we did want it to be a surprise," he says as he wraps me up in a hug.

I sigh, "I know, can I tie your tie?"

"Of course," he gives me a kiss on the forehead, I step back and start tying it. "You're going to be the most handsome man here."

"And you the most beautiful woman," he pecks my lips, taking my hand and walking out of the room.

The two of us walked into the great room where Kate was sitting silently with Carlos who was tapping away on his phone. I can't believe she hasn't spoken to me at all; now seeing her here is a bit of daunting, I don't know if she's still angry or if she understands the reason why I chose the Grey's.

"Katherine," Christian greets her.

"Christian," she said giving her a pointed look, "oh and Ana."

"Hi, Kate, how are you?" I asked. She gives me a nod I let go of Christian as I approach her for a hug, but she stiffens and side steps when I'm only a foot away. I was effectively shut down.

"Ana, I didn't answer you because I didn't want to. I'm only here because Elliot threatened to break up with me."

"Let's take this in my office," Christian interjects giving Kate an angry look, he is not happy with that exchange. I turn away from her and walk back into Christian's arms, he rubs my back as we walk into his office, Carlos even gave me a worried look but, quickly turned back to his phone.

"I don't appreciate how you spoke to Ana, and if you want to be a rude petulant child then so be it, but do it outside of our home," Christian says sternly, sitting next to me on the couch.

"Well Grey, I was asked by Elliot, more like threatened to apologize to you. I know what you did, I guess threatening people is part of the Grey's gene pool," she laughs.

"I don't have time for your games, Katherine, this is suppose to be a _family_ dinner and you didn't have to be invited so you can be easily uninvited."

"Kate, can we talk alone?" I asked, "I don't want to fight anymore."

"Well you don't have a choice in the matter," she scoffs at me.

Finally reaching my breaking point, I was over her childish behaviour, "Then leave," I say simply. "Today is not about us fighting. I tried to have some semblance of a friendship with you, but I don't want to keep playing this game if you can't even try to be civil. What you wanted to do was wrong, plain and simple. Writing something that was so devastating about the people _you_ claim to care about just to further your career is wrong.

"Opportunities like that come and go, but the type of relationship that you share with Elliot is special, once in a lifetime. And if you did write that exposé you would have lost him and the Greys. Would it have been worth it?" I asked my anger clear in my voice, but looking into her eyes I saw the guilt she was harbouring so I relaxed and sat back down. "I will always be your friend and when you're ready I will be here for you," I say giving her hug, but this time she doesn't flinch or move away. "And if you want to stay you can, it is a family dinner. I do still consider you my sister."

"But if you cause any sort of disturbance you will be escorted out," Christian quickly interjects, "I have no problem explaining Elliot why his girlfriend isn't here."

"Alright, I'd rather not fight tonight," Kate finally conceding.

"What did you actually come here for?" I ask.

"He told me to apologize to you guys," she deadpans.

"Oh," I quirk my eyebrow at Christian and he scowls at her words.

"You're piece of work." Christian murmurs under his breath. "You were pretty sexy back there," he kisses me on my cheek.

"Oh should I get in verbal arguments with people more often?" I ask.

"Hmm probably not a good idea," he chuckles.

We make it to the great room and found that Elliot, Mia, and Ethan had arrived already; Mia said that her parents would be here shortly. My parents were already in the elevator coming up; now that everyone was finally starting to arrive I began feeling nervous. The servers started serving cocktails and appetizers as we waited for the rest of the guests to arrive; when the elevator doors pinged my body involuntary tensed, Christian noticing my body changing wrapped an arm around me and greeted my parents jovially.

"Hi mom, Bob, this is Christian Grey," I said finally finding my manners.

"So pleased to meet you," my mom squeals, "call me Darla."

"Hello Darla, Bob," Christian shakes both their hands, but mom pulls him into a tight hug. Her hug was lasting a bit longer than normal that I had to literally tear him out of her grasp.

Not long after Grace and Carrick arrived, Christian and I gathered everyone in the great room where we all started to mingle. And once everyone was properly boozed up I slipped on my ring while I gave Christian a chaste kiss on his lips and then grabbed his hand, squeezing it for reassurance.

"I love you," he whispers as we look at the group of people before us. My parents and his were both talking in the far corner of the room, Carla was laughing loudly at something Carrick just said, god my mother is a hopeless flirt. Carlos was frantically tapped on his phone while he sat next to Taylor, Mia, and Elliot who were talking casually on the couch. While all of this was happening Ethan and Kate were having quite a heated discussion; Ethan's hands were flying and Kate's hands were on her hips with her face was red like a tomato. I could only imagine what words were being said, but knowing Ethan and how his face was in a scowl, this can't be good.

"I love you too," I sighed taking in the picture before us. "Do you think they'll be happy for us?"

"That's a silly question baby," he says playfully, "you know they will. My family never thought I would ever actually be in a relationship, let alone be getting married."

"You're right," I beam up at him, wrapping my arms around his waist nuzzling my face into his side. "Let's do it."

"Okay," he kisses my temple, clearing his throat and inhales. "Hello, everyone, Anastasia and I just wanted to announce something before we started dinner," he looks at me with a large smile. The moment his words slip out Grace, Carla, and Mia all gasp with their mouths wide open, when they all finally digested what he just said he continued, "Last Saturday night I asked my lovely Anastasia if she would make me the luckiest man in the world and do me the honour of becoming my wife."

"We're getting married!" I exclaimed.

"Oh my god," the three women squealed and ran up to the two of us with everyone else in tow. Congratulating the two of us with huge smiles, the only one who wasn't joining in the festivities was Kate; she on the other hand was sitting on the couch with her arms crossed. Instead of ruminating about her mood I ignored her, this was a happy time for us.

"When are you guys getting married?" Mia squealed wrapping her arms around me, "Let me plan it! Please?"

"Uh, not sure about that, Mia," I said uncertainly.

"Mia, we have a date, but we haven't gotten that far yet," Christian says wrapping his arm around my waist.

"When!?" Grace and my mom yell at us.

"October 13th, Ana comes home from work on October 8th she'll have a few days to recuperate then we'll have our big wedding."

"We have to invite everyone!" Grace exclaims, turning away to grab her purse from the foyer.

"Uh-" I begin.

"Yes, Ana this is going to be large," my mother says in awe while she walks up to Grace who are now rapidly talking.

My father took me into a hug, "I love you Annie."

"I love you daddy," I say giving returning his hug.

"Let your mom have her fun, I think she's dreamt about this moment since you were born," he laughs in my ear.

"I'll try," I say giggling.

"Christian," he says giving him a pointed look, "I'm only loaning my daughter, she's still my little girl."

"Daddy! I'm not property."

"I'm just joking," he kisses my cheek, and then steps away to let Carrick have a word.

"I'm so happy for you two," Carrick says with a smile, giving Christian and I a hug. "Son, I'm incredibly happy that you found someone who is perfect for you."

"Me too," Christian agrees, shaking his hand and gives me a large smile.

While everyone finished congratulating us, the three ladies have somehow appointed themselves as my wedding planners, initially they griped about not having enough time, but now were happy for a challenge. I don't think they're even thinking about the two of us, but instead have settled on having the largest most extravagant wedding of the year. I know at some point I will have to put my foot down, but I think I'll try not to burst their bubble just yet. Knowing that this was what it would be like, Christian and I are still looking for simple, no elephants or any other exotic animals or even acrobatics coming down from the chimney. Even though Christian and I are getting married in a month, we don't want it to be ostentatious, we like simple. That's what we are, simple and elegant.

Christian and I sat in the middle of the table with everyone seated around us. The three women were seated across from us eyeing Christian and I, my dad sat next to me, Carrick sat next to Christian with Elliot next to him. Bob sat next to my mom and Carlos while a very nervous looking Kate sat between Grace, Gail, and Taylor.

Dinner went on with rather animated conversation and before we knew it dessert and coffee were being served and the conversation was dwindling down. The entire dinner Christian had his hand rubbing circles in between my thighs and every so often his fingers would graze my slit making me tense up, with his ministrations he continued his normal conversation with the rest of the group. I was shocked, because I couldn't do anything but turn red and try to shake the feeling of his fingers on me. And every so often he would run his mouth over my hair and nipped my earlobe making me squirm and arch my back slightly.

"Thank you so much for inviting us all over," Grace hugged me, "I already consider you as my daughter."

"I know, me too," I kissed her cheek, "I know my mom will want to stay in constant contact with you and Mia."

She giggles, "I know, I'm so excited."

"Me too," I give her a smile.

xx

When everyone finally left Christian wrapped me in a large hug and took me to bed.

"Do you want to play?" I asked huskily.

"No, I want to make love to my future wife," Christian smirks.

"I'm all yours," I whispered into his ear as he carried me bridal style into the bedroom.

He threw me on to the bed, slowly kissed every inch of my skin and biting me every so often, then left open mouth kisses over them. The pace was slow and torturous he made my toes scrunch and my muscles quiver, it felt like hours of foreplay. He drove me crazy with his fingers and his tongue, and when he finally entered me I saw shooting stars, my toes felt like they were permanently curled, and with each thrust moving the bed we were getting quite loud and vocal. After hours of the most incredible lovemaking we were finally spent and wrapped in each other's very warm and sweaty arms. With our last whispered I love yous we finally fell asleep with warm tingly feelings coursing through my veins. My man is magnificent.

xx

The last couple of days in Seattle, Christian and I spent together, he went to work on Wednesday morning, but took the rest of the day off to spend with his mom at the counselling session we had together. That night he flew us down to the Rose Gardens in Portland, he had closed down the entire garden and had tea lights set up throughout the garden and white twinkling lights on the trees, it was devastatingly beautiful.

Our dinner together was much too perfect for words, Christian was definitely showing me how much he loved and cared for me. He was so attentive and caring, always right there for me. That night we didn't think about my upcoming busy months, I was planning our secret wedding to be in Los Angeles. I knew that I wanted to be his wife before I went through my crazy summer.

After we get married I will probably only take on one film a year and few mini projects, I'll focus more on my writing like I intended, but now that I have my foot in the door writing will be easier. I was never one to believe in marriage only because of my parents' history. I never really believed in the institution, but Christian changed that and I find myself changing little by little, but all in positive ways. Like this is who I'm suppose to be, I'm more confident and secure with myself.

"Are you excited about your trip?" Christian asks as he tucked me into his side as we walked out of the garden and into a waiting Taylor.

"More anxious than excited," I confessed.

"Don't worry, within a week we'll be together again," he kisses my forehead before I got into the backseat.

xx

"I love you baby," Christian kisses me deeply as he escorts me through the terminal.

"I love you too," I say as he lets go of me.

"I'll see you soon," he kisses my forehead. Sawyer and Chon took my suitcases and nodded at Taylor.

"We have to go," Sawyer says sternly.

"Alright, call me when you land," Christian asks and gives me another hug, "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too," I sigh, following Sawyer and Chon.

I turned one last time and gave him a big smile and small wave, before I passed through the security.

We boarded the plane and I sent Christian one last text before I turned it off, knowing how mad he would be if I had kept it on.

The flight went smoothly and we quickly drove through L.A. traffic and back to my apartment, I called Christian and he answered after the second ring. He was in a meeting, but he promised to call after work. I started my laundry and packed my suitcase up again for my trip. Since Carlos was reinstated he's been handling my schedule and Ros is sending my p.a. that she hired tomorrow morning. Her name is Cassie Rowland and she had been working as the executive assistant for one of the general managers in GEH. I'm pretty excited since she will be handling everything else that I can't for the next few months and she said that if it worked out well we could keep the arrangement. I just had to let her know before mid-August

Ordering way too much Chinese food I invited Chon and Sawyer who were staying at the apartment across from mine. We ate and spoke like old friends, Chon was a bit stiffer, but I know that he'll loosen up in time. The day after tomorrow we will all be going on the trip with Cassie, I'm pretty excited I've never been to Paris, and I heard it's beautiful in the springtime.

Once all the food was consumed we ended up watching a rerun of my TV show, which made all of us laugh. Sawyer knew me way before this happened and seeing me like this was really weird, and in all honesty it was pretty funny to watch me act. I kind of found it ridiculous when I started crying, how did people take me seriously?

Saying goodnight to the two men I walked them out and took a shower, shortly after Christian called before he headed to bed. We had been texting throughout the day, but it was completely different from actually hearing his voice.

"Hey baby," he husks on the phone.

"Hi, darling, I missed you," I sighed.

"How are you?"

"Great, now that I'm talking to you," I smile into the phone, "I wish I could see you."

"Me too," he replies, "but I have an idea, I'll Facetime you via my iPad."

"Yay! Okay," I say happily, "call me on mine actually, it has a bigger screen than my iPhone."

"Okay, baby, I'll call you right back."

I quickly get my iPad from my office just in time for the call to come through, I quickly accept and I see my beautiful soon to be husband on the screen. It may not be face to face, but it's definitely better than just talking on the phone.

"I love you," I exclaim, looking straight into his gray eyes.

"I love you too," he chuckles, "how was your day?"

"It was good, I laughed out loud watching myself act, though Sawyer thought I did a pretty good job."

"I've seen all of your work," he says shyly, "you did do an amazing job."

"Thank you," I reply self-consciously, it was my turn to blush.

"Ugh, baby I miss you," he growls.

"I missed you too," I pout.

"Only six more days until I get to touch you again," he assures me.

"I know," I huff. Seeing his sexy chest I started to get a little wet, I squeeze my thighs together and bite my lip hoping for some release.

"Baby, what are you doing?" he asked, quirking his eyebrow at me.

"Nothing," I blush a deeper crimson.

"I doubt it," he laughs quietly. "Your blush has reached your chest and that is always a sign that you're turned on."

"Well it's obviously the lighting," I joke.

"Let me see you," he asks huskily.

"Mmmm okay," I reply, I quickly acquiesce and take my tank top off and I wasn't wearing a bra, so I was completely bare.

"Fuck," he hisses, "you're so goddamn beautiful, I want to see all of you."

"First, take them off," I command.

"Cheeky girl," he laughs, but quickly takes his boxer briefs off and places his iPad near the end of the bed. He sat up so I could see his entire body; I did the same, but kept my black lace panties on.

"You're so hard," I smiled like a kid in the candy store, "do you know what I would do if you were here with me?"

He gives me a sexy grin, "Naughty girl."

"You bring it out of me," I shrug.

"Take your underwear off for me baby," he husks, "let me see your pretty pussy."

I quickly take them off, "Stroke your cock."

Christian grabs himself and starts stroking faster, "I want to bury myself in your pussy, god you taste so good." His words were my undoing, I began to rub and tease my clit with one hand while I grab my nipples twisting and kneading them. "Fuck," he hisses.

"I want to lick your cock from the tip to your balls," I moan, sticking a finger inside, "I want you to fuck my mouth."

"Ahh so fucking good," he moans out, "stick another finger in."

I comply and I start to go faster, "Harder."

"Yes, Ana, fuck," he hisses, he pumps his cock harder.

"Christian, I love your cock, it's so big, it always makes me feel so good," I moan.

"Mmmm baby let me ram my cock inside your beautiful pussy."

I only whimper as I continue to caress my skin and pump my fingers inside faster, I was quickly approaching my climax and I could tell Christian was close. His head lolled back as he moaned my name.

"I want to come inside you baby," he growls out.

"Yes, Christian, fuck yes ram your cock harder, I want you to come inside me," I hiss as I yelled out my orgasm. My body tensed and my warming sensation filled my body, it felt so good. I could see him his cum shoot up onto his stomach.

"Mmm I want to lick you clean," I tell him breathless, licking my lips.

"You're welcome to," he chuckles, "maybe our time apart can have some perks."

I giggle, "But nothing beats the real thing."

"Very true, but seeing you touch yourself has been one of my many fantasies of you, thank you for fulfilling it."

"Happy that I could oblige," I smile.

"You should get some sleep."

"No, I want you to stay and cuddle," I whine, god I'm such a girl.

"I can do that," he agrees and puts his iPad on his bedside table while I do the same. I stare at him quietly.

"I love you, Mr. Grey."

"I love you too, baby, now go to sleep, I'll stay here until you've fallen asleep."

"Okay," I smile lazily.

We talk about nothing and everything, but soon my eyes grow heavy and my body lulls. I hug my pillow close pretending that it was Christian, I snuggled my face into my pillow and whispered an I love you before falling off to sleep.

The next day I called Christian for a good morning and we or may not have had some morning fun, leaving my bedroom I happily got into the shower and got ready for the day. I called Sawyer to come with me to run my errands; Chon went to go pick up Cassie from the airport. When we left the apartment through the garage there was a swarm of low-life papz crowded around the street. I put on my sunglasses as we drove away quickly.

Throughout the day the paparazzi had been hounding us from store to store we had gone into, it was getting ridiculous. I fired my publicist, shit like this shouldn't be happening and their questions became a lot more intrusive; some about the Greys', my relationship with Christian, a love triangle with Samuel, and if I was pregnant. Therefore at the end of the day I was exhausted, I was suppose to do a few more things before our flight tomorrow morning, but now I can't so I'm a little more than p'd off. Frustrated we tore through the streets and headed straight through the garage.

At this rate I probably won't be able to leave my house without security, god I don't even really want to go out anymore either. Sawyer had his work cut out for him, he had to literally push and almost get into a few altercations, because some of the photographers were either getting too eager or touchy.

"I hate this, I don't even know what happened," I complain, "can't I be one of those unknowns?"

"Apparently not," Sawyer huffs, "I guess on top of your acting, your relationship, and your closeness to the Grey's it makes you a hot commodity."

I roll my eyes as we wait to arrive at our floor, my phone starts vibrating in my purse so I quickly pick it up only to find out it was Christian. My mood was definitely changed, "Hey!"

"Hi, baby, I heard you're having a rough day. Sorry that I haven't been replying as much work has been busy," he apologized.

"It's okay, I'm fine now," I say happily.

"Good, are you ready for your flight?"

"Yes, just did all my shopping," I smiled.

"I thought you were promoting a clothing line?"

"Yes, I didn't mean clothes shopping," I laugh, "books, toiletries, you know necessities."

"I'm kidding, baby," he laughs, "I'll call you before bed okay? I have a lot of work to do. I probably won't be coming home until much later tonight, but I promise to call before you go to bed."

"Okay, I love you," he says, "I have a meeting, I'll call you later."

"Love you too, talk too you soon," I smile into the phone and hang up as both Sawyer and I walk inside my apartment. He placed my bags on the dining table then took a seat.

"Sawyer I want to tell you something, but you have to keep it a secret okay?" I asked.

"Of course," he says without any hesitation.

"Christian and I want to get married before I start filming this July, so I'm planning a very, very small ceremony. I want you to come and be a witness."

He smiles instantly, "Of course!"

"Good, only you, Ros, and Taylor will be attending," I reply, "I'm not sure about Chon though."

"Why?" he asked narrowing his eyes.

"You're worse than the gossip mags," I tease, slapping him playfully on his arm, "I still have to ask him and I don't know if he'll actually want to attend."

"Of course he will," he says.

"Well he'll have a choice," I roll my eyes at him.

"You'll be a beautiful bride," he smiles at me.

"Thank you," I smile, "what should we do for dinner? I don't want to go outside to that zoo."

"Thank you!" he exclaims, "I really don't want to kill one of those leeches."

"Oh well, I'm pretty sure Carrick can get you out of that in a pinch."

"I'll remember that," he laughs. That afternoon I met Cassie, she was a sweet girl, a bit serious, but I understood why since she had been working under Christian for years after all.

After dinner and a movie, I escorted them out of my home and waited for Christian's call. We have to leave by 2:30 am to get through customs and the annoying lines in L.A.X. I called my mom, Mia, and Grace, earlier tonight to go through all of the wedding stuff that they had been incessantly emailing me about. Don't get me wrong I'm so excited to be getting married, but in all honesty I'm more excited about our secret wedding. They've already thought up a safari theme. A SAFARI THEME WITH ANIMALS! I knew I had to put my foot down, but I didn't know it would be so early on. I had to stress that I wanted simple and elegant, whites and silvers. I said they could invite whomever they wanted, as long as it stayed simple. I begged Grace to keep her levelled head amongst the crazy that the other two were bound to come up with. I told her that I wanted her to think of Christian and I, how we were and what we'd want. She agreed and promised to stay true to who we were.

After I had talked to Christian about the Safari theme idea, he wasn't shocked at all only because he had expected this, but like me just not so soon. In just a few … well long few days I'll be with him again, at 11pm he made me go to sleep. He wanted me to call him before we took off, I agreed, then quickly said our goodbyes so I could get some sleep.

Before I knew it I had fallen asleep and within a few short hours I had woken up by my annoying alarm. I quickly showered and packed my carry-on: iPad, cell phone, and all my chargers. I was ready.

Cassie met the three of at the France Airlines terminal; we had gotten through security and customs. By 4 am we were seated in the first class lounge, I waited half an hour more to call Christian only because I wanted him to have some actual sleep.

"Good morning, sweetheart," I cooed on the phone.

"Hello, baby," he says in a groggy voice.

"We're going to board soon, just wanted to say I love you," I grinned.

"I love you too," he said with sleep still laced in his voice, "have a safe flight."

"Thank you, go back to sleep," I respond, "I'll call you when I land."

"Okay, I'll miss you," he breathes out.

"I Love you, baby."

"Say it again."

"I love you?"

"The last part."

"Baby."

"Yes, again."

"I love you, baby," I laugh.

"I didn't know I'd actually love hearing that from you," he laughs.

"Bye," I laugh, "go back to bed, baby."

"Goodnight."

As we both hang up, a large smile creeps on my face, hugging my phone to my chest. I sat back down and closed my eyes; I'm so in love with that man. Fifteen minutes later we boarded the plane, finally on our way to Paris!


	17. Chapter 17

**Author's Note:**** Hello friends, I am so, so, so sorry! I had writer's block for what seemed like forever! I would open up my word document and just stare blankly at the screen.. I know fail. Anyway, I've been working on this for what seemed like weeks, but it's really only been a week and a half! I wanted it to be longer, but I couldn't without opening up a new can of worms. Teehee… Anyway my friends, I want you to know that I have not forgotten about you all! I've missed you guys! xo :D**

Part 17

Once we had landed in Roissy-Charles de Gaulle Airport at 2:30 am Central European Time, which is roughly nine hours ahead of our Pacific Standard Time, I felt the exhaustion take over my body.

Once we were all checked in, Cassie went through my schedule for this leg of our trip, while Sawyer and Chon were already in their adjoining rooms in the suite. When Cassie and I finished, she left to go to hers, which was a couple of floors under us. I think that there may be something brewing between Chon and her, I wasn't blind to the sexual tension in the small cabin of the airplane. Though those two are extremely professional I wonder how long it would take them to get together, because I know they will probably fight it for a while.

Giving Christian a call before I went to bed, the time difference will definitely not be working in ours favour. He was still in a meeting when I called, but instead of just calling me back, he actually took the call while the others were present. If it wasn't for the fact that I was sleepy, I would have been a bit more embarrassed, but since I was already in bed and he was laughing jovially I paid no mind.

The next morning I was set to do a round of interviews with the French press, then the rest of the afternoon will be spent sight seeing. I promised Christian that I would take and send all of the photos I take to him, sort of like being on the trip with me. Though if I was being completely honest I could barely sleep last night, I had gotten so used to him being in bed with me that I found myself snuggling between large amounts of pillows just to feel a little bit sated.

While I got ready to start my very long day, I left him a long text message for when he woke up, because I didn't want to call and wake him. I know my man needed sleep.

"Good morning, Ana," Cassie greeted me as we walked out of the lobby into an awaiting car to drive us to our first round of interviews with Vogue Paris, then Cosmopolitan France, and finally a local French television daily. I was to be on the cover of Cosmo in Flora Kat's Fall collection, then I'll only have an a small article in Vogue- don't get me wrong I'm so honoured to be even be recognized in such a prominent magazine, but that makes this day very long!

Upon arriving at the Vogue office, I was quickly ushered in and took a few shots in front of a periwinkle coloured backdrop. They had me in the dress I was already in due to the fact the article will be about my personal style. After a slew of questions we quickly finished an hour later, glad that I was literally in and out. After a quick snack on the go we went to Cosmo where I met up with Flora.

"Awe sweets, you look amazing!" She squeals, "How have you been?"

"I'm doing so well, I can't believe we're here!" I laugh giving her a hug. Flora is a beautiful blonde pixie, I was short, but she was _much_ shorter. With a blonde bob cut, clear green eyes, and these beautiful long lashes. She is definitely gorgeous!

"I know, I could barely sleep a wink," she said excitedly ushering me behind the doors so I could get dressed in my first outfit. A black ruffled tight short dress with thick straps, I wore my hair in large flowing curls, then my second outfit was a light blue shorts with a sheer white blouse, and lastly a silk deep violet tube top dress with an cinched waistline.

"Your line is gorgeous," I squeal stepping out in my first outfit, the photographer took pictures of Flora touching me up and us laughing.

After an hour of pure posing we were finally finished with the pictures, I quickly got changed and then met their interviewer Marie Claude; she was such a natural beauty who looked a lot like Emmy Rossum. I could look at her all day if I could!

Although her questions were sort of the same as any other fashion magazine, we quickly got into a pretty comfortable conversation that diverted from the actual questions she had lined up, so when we were finished I felt like I was saying goodbye to a friend.

"Thank you so much for taking the time to do our interview, I never knew you'd be so sweet," she smiled at me.

"I've never had so much fun at an interview," I replied.

"We should hang out before you leave Paris," she smiled, giving me a hug.

"Of course, that sounds amazing," I smile, "give me your card and we'll be in touch."

"We'll paint Paris red," she laughs, and then walks out of the room.

"Hey Cassie, can you check if we have time to go out at night during our stay?" I ask.

"I'll check, I think we'll be fine though," she smiled as she looked at my schedule.

"Good! What time do we have to be at the station?" I asked.

"In a couple of hours, it's only 11 am, we should grab some lunch before we head out."

"Okay, we'll round up the two of them," I say as I get off my seat and grab my things.

xx

Christian left me a message with Cassie while I was being interviewed on camera, which left me pretty antsy to call him back.

"Hey," I coo on the phone once I've finally got out of the station, "I've missed you!"

"Hi baby, I've missed you too, only a few more days now," he laughs.

"How was your day?"

"Just finished the interviews today," I smiled into phone, "I only have two more tomorrow and then I'll be done all my duties for the week!"

"That's great baby, now you'll probably be able to enjoy the entire experience."

"Definitely," I exclaim, "how was work?"

"Busy, I felt like I never left the boardroom or my office for more than five minutes," he sighs heavily.

"If I were there I would make it _all_ better."

"Is that so?"

"Mmmhmm," I giggled.

He breathes out sending shiver down my spine, "You are such a tease, baby."

"Am not," I said coyly.

"What are you up to tonight?"

"Ahh not sure, I think I want to walk around Paris and see some sights, it's so beautiful I wish you were here."

"Oh baby, I do too."

"I wish I could talk to you all night long," he exhales, "but that would be selfish. Go and enjoy yourself."

"Fine, but I want you to call me when you have time in the morning, I'll wait to get your call before I go to bed."

"Okay, sounds good, I'll probably work some more and then head off to bed."

"Text me or call me before you do?"

"Of course," he laughs.

"I love you, handsome."

"I love you more beautiful, I'll talk to you later."

"Okay, bye."

The next few days in Paris went by without a hitch and I was even able to be a tourist for the last few days and hand out with Marie. Now that we've all settled in our hotel in London, I'm pacing around trying to get a hold of Christian, he was suppose to have landed two hours ago.

I've already left three voicemails, still with nothing! Deciding on a warm bath to calm me, I head into my expansive bathroom and started the water. Once I'm finally in I close my eyes and ignore the gruesome thoughts running through my head. Maybe I'm being irrational, but I know Christian, if he said he'd call me then he will call. No question asked. What was more unsettling was the fact that his plane had already landed, but with no Christian. On top of everything, neither Sawyer nor Chon know where he and Taylor are.

I was jolted from my troubled musings by an abrupt knock on my door.

"Ana!" It was Cassie.

"Yes," I called out, a bit disappointed.

"You should come out here," she said frantically.

"Hold on, I'm in the bath, let me dry off."

"Hurry."

"Alright," I groan and quickly get out of my warm water. Once I had dried off I opened the door already annoyed.

"Finally," she says exasperated. "Go get dressed," pushing a dress into my hands.

"Why?"

"I'll let you know when we're in the car," she says already walking away, what the hell?

"Tell me now!" I demanded.

"NO! Just hurry up, we're running out of time."

Running out of time? Is it Christian? Is he hurt? All of my worry comes flooding through me as I quickly get dressed, not even caring about my wet hair, I put it into a loose bun, then throw on a pair of chucks then headed out. Sawyer, Chon, and Cassie are all waiting for me outside my room.

"Is it Christian?" I ask frantic.

"We have to go," Cassie dismisses me and takes my hand, dragging me towards the elevators with the others in tow.

"Is he okay?" I asked once we've reached the lobby.

"I don't know."

"WHAT!?" I asked, my heartbeat accelerating.

"Relax, we'll find out soon," she says.

Fuck, I don't know what I'm going to do, I try calling his phone again, but this time it goes straight to voicemail. What happened to Christian? We stepped into an awaiting car and began to drive; my legs and fingers were both shaking in frightened anticipation. I couldn't let myself think about the truth, I can't, it would break me.

"We're here," Cassie says softly.

"Where are we?" I asked, in front of us stood a beautiful old Victorian style house.

"Come," Cassie motions for me to follow her, she leads me up to the steps and I'm not sure what I'm feeling. It was a mix of anxiousness, nervousness, with a hint of excitement. Is Christian here? "Open the door."

I nod at her and take the old handle, turning it and pushing it open, I'm flooded by warm lighting and a soft smell of flowers. At the bottom of the stairs, stood Christian in a tux, my heart stopped completely.

"Christian?" I asked.

"Hello, beautiful," he says huskily, taking three longs strides to get to me.

"Why weren't you at the airport, I was worried," I earnestly told him as he wrapped his arms around me so my face was on his chest.

"I'm sorry that I had to do that, but it was a surprise."

"This was all for a surprise!? Are you serious? I was worried sick," I said angrily, hitting his chest in frustration, "don't _ever_ do that again!"

"I'm sorry to do that too you," he kisses my lips softly. "But, this," he motions around the house, "is the surprise."

"You bought us a house?"

"Yes, that's part of it, but I want you not to freak out, okay?"

"Christian… what did you do?"

"I was thinking about everything, you and I, our life, where we were going and how excruciatingly long since I had last touched you."

"Okay," I said prodding him on.

"Let's get married."

"We are…"

"No, today, right now."

"What?!" my eyes go wide and my heart stops beating momentarily.

"I know it's sort of been sprung on you, but I had Cassie handle everything."

"That's why she had been asking all of those questions..."

"Yeah," he said shyly.

"You're serious?"

"Of course, there's nothing stopping us. We both want to get it done and I may have been a little less patient than you," he smiles.

Thinking about the logistics for a moment, "Okay, let's do it," I say jumping into his arms.

"You have made me the happiest man on earth," he kisses me hard on the lips, then opening and teasing my tongue.

"And I the happiest woman," I replied as I broke it breathlessly, then kissing every part of his face, "but what about my dress?"

"All taken care of," he smirks.

"You are the most wonderful soon-to-be husband Mr. Grey."

"Well, _Miss_ Steele, you only deserve the best," he kisses the tip of my nose and puts me down, "now go up there, Cassie will help you get ready."

"Okay," I say leaping out his arms and running up the stairs.

"I love you."

"I love you too," I smiled at him before disappearing at the top of the stairs. Cassie was already waiting for me in the hall.

"Hey, Ana, sorry about earlier."

"Totally okay," I said with a large grin on my face. "How long have you been planning this?"

"Just the last three days of the Paris trip."

"You're so sly," I giggle, "okay let's get me married!"

After I get my hair and make-up done, I slip into a beautiful Grecian style white dress that touched the floor embellished with crystals at the bottom of my right breast, then I slip on pair of delicate white pumps then headed down the stairs. I really didn't know what I was supposed to be doing, but I decided to take Cassie, who was dressed in a knee-length pink sleeveless dress and black pumps.

"Ready?" she smiles at me.

"Yes," I return her large smile, she hands me a large bouquet, and squeezes my arm.

"He's waiting outside for you," she gives me a smile.

"Thank you for doing this," I give her a tight hug.

"You're so welcome," she returns my hug, "you look beautiful," she gives me a large smile. "Okay, gorgeous lets get you married!"

"Okay!"

"I'll walk ahead of you, count ten steps and begin, he'll be waiting with the minister in the gazebo."

"There's a gazebo?"

"Yeah, it's beautiful."

"Can't wait to see it!"

"Let's get going."

"Okay," I reply. We walk together to the large French doors that led to the backyard; she gives me another reassuring smile and opens the doors. She steps out first and the music begins to play a lone pianist was outside, after her first ten steps I finally take my first step through the threshold. I could finally see the entire backyard, which was decorated with twinkling lights and a vast array of flowers, and there was a white aisle that led straight to the gazebo. The gazebo had white lilies that wrapped around poles, and there in the middle of everything stood Christian, we both locked eyes and I could see the large smile that was set on his face.

I mouthed an I love you and continued to walk towards the man I wanted to share my life with, for the twenty seconds that it took for me to walk up to him, we were the only ones there. My tears began to well up in my eyes, but I tried to will them not to fall. When I finally reach him, he grabs my hands and pulls me close to him.

The entire thing went by in a blur and only broke of each other's hold when it was time for our vows.

Christian went first, "Anastasia, my love, I have been looking for you for a long time. Before I met you I was travelling around in the dark and then you, a bright shining star that made me see again and brought me back to life. I promise to never leave your side. On this day I vow always to stay true to you and always work things out even when we don't see eye to eye," he laughs lightly. "I will take care of you in sickness, trial, and tribulation. You have my heart, my trust, and my love.

"Ana, I will trust in you and will always know you have my best interest at heart. A heart that is so full and rich with love, generosity, and caring beyond the entire universe. You are the most beautiful person inside and out, and I am lucky to be the one you chose to spend the rest of your life with. You are my absolute everything, I love you." My heart soared and the tears were slipping out freely. He cupped my face while brushing the stray tears away.

After I had regained some of my bearings, I began with my vows. Though mine weren't as thought out as his, I vowed to drip all of my love into it. "Christian, two years ago you captured my heart by being exactly who you are, despite the time we foolishly spent apart, I knew you owned my heart. You are the sweetest, most loving, caring, and loyal person I have ever had the pleasure of having in my life.

"You have are my best friend through the good and the bad. You have been the reason I smile and you have given me the comfort beyond measure when I have cried. You have believed in me when no one else would, and you have shown me how to love with passion, purity, and unconditional acceptance. I'm not sure a lifetime is long enough to return all that you have given to me, but I promise the rest of my days I will spend by your side. I vow to laugh with you, to cry with you, to believe in and support you. In poverty I promise to do everything to make our love rich, and in wealth to never let our love grow poor. Together we are better than we could ever hope to be alone, and today I give you my love, my trust, and my fidelity forever. You will always be the best part of my day, I love you so much." I choked out the last words and let my tears fall, while Christian even let some of his tears shed.

I love you, we mouth to each other, as the ceremony continued. It was time for the rings.

"With this ring I thee wed," Christian says with a large smile as he slips on my platinum band.

"With this ring I thee wed," I slip his on with the same bright smile.

"As this couple before us have consented together in wedlock and have the same witness this company, and pledged their vows to each other. By the authority vested in me it is my greatest honour to pronounce you husband and wife, Christian you may kiss your bride," the minister looks at us and Christian in turns pulls me tightly into him and kisses me deeply. He dips me down and lets his tongue roam freely inside my mouth. I love this man.

After we had detached ourselves unwillingly, the two of us signed all the necessary papers, and when we arrive back home I will be changing my name officially. Mrs. Anastasia Steele-Grey, sounds perfect.

Everyone was congratulating us as we both were hugged and kissed.

"Mrs. Grey, I hope you know I'm never letting you go," he whispers in my ear, as he wraps his arm around my waist.

"I would never want to leave," I kiss his chin, "I love you, handsome."

Even Gail and Taylor both came on the trip, giving both of us very large hugs and kisses. Apparently Christian thoroughly planned this, because we even had three cars awaiting us ready to take us to our mini-reception, and since I was so focused I didn't even notice the cameraman taking pictures and videotaping. Tonight is perfect.

Our little group made our way to a small little bistro a few blocks down the road, we were promptly seated in a private room. I really didn't even bother finding out exactly where we were, because Christian and I were so wrapped up in each other that we've barely said a word to anyone else. Our own little perfect bubble. I still can't believe we actually got married.

I should have known that Christian would have done something like this, constantly keeping me on my toes. This is by far the sweetest thing that has ever been done for me, the fact that he didn't even want wait the month to get married. Ugh I could just kiss that man… oh wait I can.

Slyly smiling up at the man who always makes me wanted and cared for, I gave him a soft attentive kiss. I was glad that the chairs we were sitting on didn't have any armrests, so Christian and I could scoot our chairs together. Gail was making googly eyes with Taylor as Christian was nuzzling was my ear; this moment was utterly perfect.

xx

The next few days were spent locked up in our new home; Christian even carried me over the threshold that night. Although we didn't jet off to an exotic local, it was still the epitome of perfection for both of us. All we ever needed was a bed, food, and a kitchen to sustain us; we stayed wrapped in each other's arms the entire rest of the trip. We didn't do any sightseeing at all, thus Christian's promises of take me back here to see the sights. Honestly, I could care less, London will always be special to me, it's the place we were married and vowed to be together forever.

Once our time finally came to an end, we all forlornly boarded Christian's… err our plane. Christian plans to work in L.A. from my office at home. I wasn't due to go on the press junket until a week from now so he wanted to look at homes for the two of us, since we would both be flying back and forth constantly. And to be honest my condo really wouldn't fit us; we both like our space.

I was only too happy to agree, this would be our first big purchase together as a married couple. Eek I'm actually married! Christian had already been in contact with his realtor and he was currently drawing up our best prospects. I think he wanted to stay around Homlby Hills and Bel Aire, I think it's too much for us, but really I wasn't going argue over the place we were going to call home so I let it go. Pick your battles right?

I had my head on his lap as Christian looked over some of his work that he had neglected while he we were on our 'honeymoon'. He was lazily running his hand over my arm as he read over the new contracts; I would give his leg soft kisses and nuzzling closer to his thigh.

"Don't do that, baby," he says, not diverting his eyes from the computer in front of him.

"But baby…" I playfully whined.

"Aren't you sore?"

"Nope," I say happily.

"Well, I've neglected all of this, hence the fact I can't … _pleasure_ you at the moment," he smirks down at me.

"I love you so much husband."

"I love you too wife," I get up from my position and stretch out, giving him a big sloppy kiss on his cheek. "How long until we arrive?"

"Just three more hours."

"I know how we can pass the time," I waggle my eyebrow at him.

"What have I done?"

"I'm a bit sex-crazed, I'll admit but it's all your fault," I kiss the edge of his bottom lip. He laughs warmly, "I'm completely and utterly obsessed with you."

"I think the feeling's mutual," he smiles at me as he wraps his arm around me.

When we finally land, I was sexually frustrated. Christian, despite all of my seduction tactics, was engrossed in his work. I understand completely, but I was really just being a brat, I hope he punishes me. I let out a little giggle, which I get weird looks from everyone in the car. Christian has been in talking to Ros since the moment we landed, and would only give me a small squeeze every once in awhile.

"Sorry about that baby," he whispers into my ear when we finally make it back home.

"It's okay," I give him a large smile, reassuring him that there was no harm done.

"We almost lost a deal to some other company, but Ros smoothed it over."

"Good," I said happily, "to which company?"

"Drexel Inc.," he gruffs.

"Aww baby, you can't have it all," I tease him.

"Oh I'll show you that I can have it all!" he exclaims and grabs me around my waist and carries me into the bedroom.

"You were being a tease on the airplane."

"Mmm what are you going to do about it?"

"What I wanted to do to you ever since we boarded that plane," he whispers into my ear and then unexpectedly throws me on the bed. "I'll show you how much I fucking want you," he exhales into my ear.


	18. Chapter 18

**Author's Note:**** Okay guys, I am so, so sorry for not updating sooner. BUT I did manage this update-ish… It's Christian and Ana's very first Valentine's Day together.**

_**Backstory**_**: Ana doesn't know where she stands with Christian because he acts like he doesn't care. So there is definitely some animosity there. (All before her acting)**

**Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY my lovely readers! Xo**

Outtake of The Fast Life: Christian and Ana's first Valentine's Day 

There was a knock at my door, a knock that wouldn't go away. I sat up from my warm bed and tried to wipe the sleep from my eyes, finally I found the energy to stand up and put some pants on. I look through the peephole finding some random man in a uniform with a box in his arm.

I tentatively opened the door, "Hi."

"Miss Steele?" he asks.

"Yes."

"I have a delivery for you," he hands me the box and has me sign his hand held.

"Thank you," I say, giving him a small smile.

"Have a nice day, miss," he gives me a toothy grin and walks away.

Finally able to close my door I brought the box to my dining room and opened it, there were a dozen white roses. Christian.

I quickly grab my phone and text him.

_A: Happy Valentines Day and thank you for the roses, they are beautiful. xo_

_C: I'm glad. ;)_

I can't believe he even remembered, we hadn't spoken since the weekend and even that had ended up in an argument. Stowing my phone away I quickly jump into the shower, since I have so much work to do on my papers. UGH.

Ready to start my day, I grab my some breakfast, but was quickly interrupted by another knock at my door. Who could it be this time?

"Hello, I'm looking for a Miss Steele," a very beautiful blonde woman said through the door.

"I'm she," I answer a bit apprehensive.

"Mr. Grey has planned a full day for you," she says as she quickly tries to pull me in her direction.

"What?" I looked at her incredulously.

"He planned it, so if you will, please follow me."

"Uh can you give me a moment?" I ask, but before she could answer I had already closed the door on her face.

Quickly grabbing my phone I called Christian, was she for real? The woman is practically kidnapping me.

"Ana?" he asks.

"Yes," I said a little impatiently, "there's a woman outside trying to get me to come with her."

"Oh that's Gwen, she's one of my assistants."

"She's practically dragging me out, what does she want?"

"Since I couldn't be with you today, she's an extension of me."

"Seriously?" I furrow my eyebrows, "You want me to sleep with her?"

He growls, "Don't start Ana."

"Someone's a bit jealous," I tease, "what does she want anyway."

"She's come to pick you up and take you to the spa and such."

"Christian, I don't need the spa, the flowers were enough."

"Baby, don't argue with me," he says sternly, and because I am shameless I quiver and immediately get wet. I exhale.

"Fine, how long will this take?" I asked.

"All day."

"Christian, I have so much work to do! I have papers to write," I said in a huff.

"Baby you and I both know those papers are already perfect, please can you let me spoil you?"

I grumble, "Fine."

"That wasn't so hard was it?"

"Sometimes I think you only do these things to see how much you can control my life."

"Baby, you know me so well," he laughs.

"That's not funny, Christian."

"Bye, beautiful," he says in a silky voice.

My heart melts, "Bye."

Ugh this man is impossible, but since I did concede I guess I should grab my things. Bringing a small purse I put my wallet and cell phone in and answer the door again.

"Sorry about that," I said shyly to the woman.

"That's alright," she says brightly, "please call me Gwen."

"Ana," I smile at her as she leads us to the awaiting car. Sawyer was already holding the door for me.

"Good morning, Miss Steele," he greets.

"Good morning Sawyer," I smile at him and slide into the seat.

The sun was finally out after two weeks of rain; I was excited for his surprise. I shouldn't be so hard on Christian; he was trying to be sweet and to think he's even remembered Valentine's Day. Since meeting last Fall, we've been playing a weird game, where he would pretend to be unattached to me, but would still act like a boyfriend. He didn't want to meet my dad during the holidays, but _I've_ been to his parents repeatedly.

He does all of these things that make me want to punch him in the face and pull my hair, yet there are times when I just want to kiss him because he's so wonderful. It's honestly giving me whiplash; it's like dating two guys. He can be incredibly sweet, caring, and attentive, well I guess he's always caring, but there's this side to him that I don't understand at all. He's hot and cold. I understand to some extent why he's like that, he hasn't explicitly told me everything, but I can gather bits and pieces of his past.

The worse thing about all of this is that I think I'm falling in love with him, but I can't tell him that. He's already has commitment phobia couple that with his haphephobia, it's a pretty difficult mix. I know he cares, he shows it, but I just want more from him. He claims that he's never let anyone sleep in his bed and we do fall asleep together whenever we're at his place, but there's definitely something we're missing. The man is not easy to love; he keeps me an arm's length, while still seemingly needing me to stick around. I just don't understand it.

I guess it's complicated.

Christian tore up that stupid contract I had signed in October and in all honesty I thoroughly love playing, but I need more from him. I know he doesn't treat me like one of his subs based on the fact that we go out on the weekdays (yeah, I read his damn terms) and when we fall asleep I'm enveloped in this scorching heat because his body is draped over me, it's spectacular. But the one question I ask myself constantly is that what if he was only ready for a _bit_ more, not more, more. Do you know what I mean? AHH.

I feel like I'm constantly asking myself if I'm replaceable.

With instances like these, Valentine's Day and the new addition of a bodyguard, I feel like we're together. Like he thinks I'm worth more than a good lay, but he still doesn't want to solidify it. And our late night talks in the dark have only given me more mixed signals. The scars on his chest and back don't go unnoticed either, what I would to finally feel him, all of him.

"We're here," Sawyer says from his front seat.

"Sorry, just thinking," I look at him sheepishly. "Where are we?"

"At the Fairmont," Gwen answered, "I have your itinerary."

"Great," I smiled at her, though it was bit forced. Sawyer escorted us up to the penthouse suite where he would wait for me. Poor guy.

"We've booked you for the VIP in the Celebrity Suite," Gwen prattles on, "You'll start with a thermal hair and scalp treatment, then a ninety minute signature massage, then you'll have a light lunch at noon. Followed with a body wrap, then the Moor mud bath finished off with Vichy Shower Spa therapy, finally you'll end the day with Absolute Spa signature facial and a mani/pedi with paraffin.

"Mr. Grey wants you completely relaxed," she says in one big breath.

"Will we have enough time?" I asked, that was quite an extensive list.

"You'll be staying here tonight, the room and everything has already been paid for," she answers and quickly goes through her phone. "It's time for me to go, it was nice to meet you Miss Steele."

"You too."

I groaned as the woman who was going to take over brought me slippers and a robe, so much for editing my paper. Finally conceding I got undressed and got prepared to be pampered, but before I could get fully started I sent Christian a text to show him my gratitude.

_A: Thank you, but this was too much! Xo_

After a few minutes he replied once I was shown where I was going to start my "experience".

_C: You deserve it, I want you thoroughly relaxed ;)_

xx

After what seemed like a very, very long day I was polished, buffed, massaged, and thoroughly relaxed. My skin was glowing and everything felt new, no wonder Kate goes to the spa religiously.

"Miss Steele, I'm Shawna," a very beautiful brunette came into my room, "I'm going to do your make-up and my associate Kelly, will do your hair."

"Uh… why?" I give them suspicious looks.

"Mr. Grey has another surprised for you," Shawna replies.

"Oh alright, I guess," I said looking worried. Christian is planning a surprise, I doubt he'd actually come down. He said he had a very important meeting tonight that was why he couldn't come down to visit.

"Don't worry you're in very capable hands," Kelly interjects.

"Since your skin is already so flawless, we'll stick to the basics and only accentuate what you already have," Shawna winks at me.

"As for you hair we'll keep it nice and flowing, have you seen your dress?" Kelly asked.

"No," I answered honestly. They both give me large smiles and pull out the garment bag. Inside was a tight black dress that came up mid thigh with a beautiful lace overlay, the sleeves were three quarter length. It was absolutely gorgeous. The man even remembered shoes, black Manolos.

Once everything was done, I put my dress on before I looked at myself in the full-length mirror. My hair was lightly curled and my makeup was kept light but was contrasted with dark, dramatic eyes, shit I look hot. The girls took a picture of me and left me all by my lonesome.

Promptly at seven Christian arrived, the doorbell to the room chimed throughout the rooms. Sawyer goes and answers it; I'm still in the master bedroom touching up my red lips. I could hear the three of them conversing, when I finally hear a light tap on my door. I turn on my chair and look at the door.

"Ana," he breathes when he opens the door to walk in.

"Hello, Christian," I smiled shyly at him, "I thought you had an important meeting."

"I do," he smiles at me playfully. "You look … Wow…" he looks me up and down with his mouth agape.

"So you wanted to surprise me?" he simply nods still transfixed with my outfit. "Is it too much?" I asked.

"Never too much," he rasps, finally snapping out of his daze he takes four long strides towards me. "You look beautiful."

"Thank you," I blush at his gaze.

"God, I want to take you right here," he growls, "but we have to make our dinner reservations."

"Oh Mr. Grey big, bad CEO has to follow rules?" I tease.

He groans as he pulls me in, "I missed you."

"I missed you too, and thank you again for this, it was so sweet."

"You deserve it," he kisses my forehead and grabs my hand.

We were escorted to an awaiting car at the hotel entrance; we drove to Cioppino's Mediterranean Grill. We were soon shown to a private room, which was dimly lit giving it a very warm feeling.

"You are so beautiful," he muses, making me blush yet again, "did you enjoy your day?"

"Yes, it was great," I smiled, " I really didn't expect this." I waved around the room, "I thought the flowers were the surprise."

"Never enough, I have a need to spoil and take care of you."

I give him a small smile; he was about to say something when our waiter arrived with our wine and appetizers of bruschetta.

"I know that I haven't shown you how much you mean to me," he looks into my eyes, "but I deeply care for you."

"I care about you too," I whisper.

"I talked to my father and my brother, I mean they've been trying to get me to listen to them…." He starts to mumble, completely unlike him. "All this time they were telling me that I should make things official… I meat what we have," he motions between us, "I wasn't unaware what I was doing… I mean I knew what I was doing-"

"Relax, Christian," I squeeze his hands.

He exhales deeply, "What I'm trying to say is that, I know everything that you do for me is what someone in a relationship would do. And if I were being honest I was trying my hardest to ignore it and retain that relationship I'm used to having with women-"

"Your subs."

"That's it," he nods, "in my head that was what I thought I wanted, but the more I see you and am near you my mind changes, you make me want more. I tried ignoring my feelings, shit," he runs his free hand through his hair. "I tried acting like you meant nothing to me, when even in the beginning that was never the case.

"You're different from any woman I have ever met and I suppose that in a way I was trying to sabotage it, because I never felt that I would be enough. Baby, I'm so fucked up, you deserve someone who can give you what you deserve."

His confession shocked me, pulling my chair so they were next to each other I wrapped my arms around his arm careful not to touch his torso, "You are enough, Christian. I deserve you. If anyone should feel insecure about this, it should be me. Look at you and look at me."

"Ana, don't even start, you are utter perfection."

I kissed his cheek and laid my head on his shoulder, the safety zone. "What brought all this on?"

"My father and Elliot were talking about you finding someone else, because of how I constantly keep you at arm's length. I guess I'm just scared."

"So am I," I confess, "until today I couldn't answer what we had if anyone were to ask me, I knew we were more than friends, but then what are we? I know that I care about you, but I never fully understood why you kept me around. I mean I know you cared, I know that you liked me, but it was constantly an uphill battle. You would give me an inch and then you'd run a mile backwards, I didn't understand it."

"I apologize for that, every time I thought I was feeling too much I would quickly retract, I'm so sorry baby."

"It's okay now," I smile at him, "so what did this epiphany mean for us?"

"That you are mine, my _everything_."

"You're girlfriend."

"Yes," he gives me a very shy un-fifty smile, "you are my first, and so I apologize in in advance if I mess up. Please be patient with me."

"Always," I beamed up at him, "thank you."

_I love you._

No. I can't say that, so I hold it in. One step at a time, I mean it took the man four months to say that he wanted more from me.

"So are you my boyfriend?"

"Yes," he says triumphantly, "oh and that reminds me I want to meet your parents, sorry that I was being difficult last Christmas."

"Already forgotten."

We continued dinner wrapped in a new sort of warmth, the man that I was falling for is finally, sort of reciprocating. I mean I'll take what I can get from him.

Once we were finished Christian wrapped an arm around me and pulled us away.

"We're having dessert in the hotel room."

"Okay," I smiled.

The drive back was spent cuddled together in the back of the limo as he was dropping small kisses on my neck and face.

"I can't wait to take you to bed," he whispered in my ear, making my body tingle.

_I love you. _

He pressed me up against him on our way to the elevator.

"When are you flying back to Seattle?

"Tomorrow morning."

"Oh," my face falls.

"Baby, I'll be back this weekend," he promises, "I have to meet your father right?"

"Yes!" I smiled.

"Only two days, baby, plus you have school tomorrow afternoon."

"I know," I grumble.

He picks me up and me into the room, the curtains overlooking the city were drawn, giving us the perfect view of Vancouver. Right by the window there was a baby grand piano and a trolley next to it was a tray of desserts. To the right there was a small table with rose petals and tea lights and two plates; it was perfect.

He led me to the seat and opened the chair for me.

"I wish you were naked, but I doubt that we would get very far," he chuckles darkly.

I giggle as he brings the trolley over, tiramisu, chocolate covered strawberries, whipping cream, and profiteroles. I'm in heaven.

"This is utterly amazing."

"All of your favourites," he smiled cockily.

"I can't believe you remembered them all!"

"I would never forget anything about you," he replies. I let a tear slip out, but he quickly wipes it away,"I can't explain how sorry I am baby, I wasn't always the best to you the last few months. I still can't believe that you're with me right now."

"I'd never leave," I confessed.

"Do you promise?"

"Yes," I said a bit sadly, because I'm trusting my heart to someone who may never feel the same way about me as I do him.

"I promise I will never leave you," he vowed, "I know that may not mean anything to you right now, but I want the chance to show you if you'll let me."

"I will," I smiled at him.

We ate our desserts until I was almost bursting at the seams, we stood up and he led me to the piano. We silently sat down and he began playing, it was sweet, fast, and then slow and painful. There was a very dark melody that laced the beginning, but it soon turned to a sure and almost loving ending… actually it sounded a bit unfinished.

"Who was that?" I asked.

"I wrote that, well I found myself playing the same notes over and over again until I finally sat down and closed my eyes. I began playing, it's kind of like my diary."

I giggled, "It's beautiful."

"Thank you, but it' not finished yet."

"Will you finish it for me?"

"I think it's about you," he says a bit bashfully.

_I LOVE YOU._

"Christian…"

"You don't have to say anything," he kisses my temple, "I just wanted you to know."

"Thank you," I smile up at him, "it was beautiful."

I placed my hand on his thigh and ran my hand lightly over his pants, working my way up to his erection.

"You have no idea how much this night means to me," I run my hand over him making his cock twitch all the more. "You have no idea how many times I've questioned what we have, so thank you for putting my mind at ease."

"Uh," he chokes out, probably not able to form words because I'm palming him.

His eyes darken with lust as he traces his fingers up my dress and moving my panties to the side so he could insert his finger making me arch my back.

"Look how wet you are," he teases me as he sticks it in his mouth. "Fuck you're delicious," I slide my tongue between my lips moistening it. "But I think I want that red lipstick around my cock, do you think you can do that for me?"

I nod dumbly.

"Good, let's go," he stands up and gives me his sexiest smirk. He pulls me up and carries me into the bedroom, which consequently had candles all over the room, making the room glow.

"You did this?" I asked.

"Of course," he kisses me and tugs on my bottom lip, "it's like our first time."

"Who knew you could be a romantic, Mr. Grey."

"I can be when the occasion calls for it," he wraps his arms around me, "and I think this is a pretty special occasion."

"That it is."

"Now, get on your knees," he commands and sends a jolt through my body. Complying with his demands I get on my knees and start unbuttoning his trousers. "Wait, I think you have too much clothes on, take off your dress."

"I think I can fix that," I smile at him coyly. I stand up and step backwards keeping my eyes on his, I slowly move my hips as I shimmy out of my very, very tight dress. Leaving only my black lingerie.

"Fuck-" he hisses, I walk up to him and get on my knees. Pulling his cock out completely, he lets out a guttural moan as I flick off his precum. When I finally got his bottoms off, he kicked it away and took off his suit jacket; damn for second I thought he'd let me in.

Don't be so greedy, one step at a time Ana.

When I finally have his cock in my mouth he begins to thrust into me feeling him hit the back of my throat made me go crazy. He had my hair wrapped around his hands; I pushed his thighs towards me so he could thrust in deeper, while my other hand played with his balls. His thrusts became erratic.

"Oh, baby… fuck just like that," he rasped as our eyes locked, he closed his. "Fucking love your mouth, take my cock baby."

His words only drove me insane as I became insatiable, I met him thrust for thrust, I didn't care that he was pretty much down my throat. I didn't care that he held my hair tightly in his hands or that his knees would knock into me. I became ravenous. I wanted his cock.

I hummed and grazed him with my teeth that only drove him to the edge.

"Fuck baby, I'm going to come-" he yelps, then grunts finally coming in four long spurts down my needy throat. "Baby, that was amazing," he goes limp as I lick him clean and give him a smile.

He finally pulls me up from the floor and kisses me deeply, "We're not going to play tonight, I'm going to worship your body," he says gruffly in between sloppy kisses. Our bodies had become a tangled mess; he rips off my panties and immediately rushes to into it.

"Christian…"

"Baby, you're so delicious," he laps at my pussy like it's water. He rubs my clit with his tongue while he plays with my ass, which always pushes me deeper.

"Ugh…. So good," I moan.

My words only egg him on, he continues to bury tongue inside me, I can feel the low rumble in my stomach begin to build. I wrapped my legs around his shoulders and thrust my hips into his face; at this point he already has his forefinger in my ass slowly pushing it deeper. I felt completely full as my climax quickly began to escalate. Christian already feeling my walls constrict around his tongue assaulted my pussy and ass even more, then in one quick thrust of his tongue and finger I was done.

I yelled his name like it was a prayer, running my hands through his hair.

"God, that was amazing," I breathed, trying to get more air into my lungs. I collapsed on the bed to even out my breaths, Christian then takes this opportunity to run his hands up my body, slowly cupping my breasts and sucking on my nipples.

"You are perfection," he whispers in between my very, very erect nipples. Giving both long kisses, he works his tongue up to my neck and into my mouth. I pull him closer by tugging on his hair, he caresses my tongue with his. My body was already begging for more as I grinded my hips into his, seeking friction.

"Christian, I want you," I said as I break the kiss.

"What do you want?" he asks.

"I want you fuck me with your cock," I nip his chin.

He gives me a knowing smirk.

"As you wish," he chuckles, "but first I want to feel my cock in between your perfect breasts."

I simply nod at him eagerly; he pushes his cock into my mouth to lubricate it. Rolling my tongue around his base, he slips it out of my mouth and positions himself.

"Push them together, baby," he grunts. I do as I'm told and push my breasts together, enveloping his massive cock.

He takes it slow at first, but soon starts to pick up speed. Every so often I would stick my tongue out so I could taste the precum that was already leaking from his tip.

"Fuck, baby that's it," he groans as he pushes in, I was already beginning to feel my orgasm building again. There was something so intimate about this that always pushed me over the edge.

"Christian, I'm going to come," I look at him, "please fuck me. I want to feel your cock deep in my pussy."

Without another word from me he quickly gets off me and aligns himself in-between my legs, thigh on each arm. He began a slow, torturous pace.

"Move, Christian," I begged.

He gives me an evil smile and begins to plough into me, "Like that baby? You like my balls hitting your ass?"

"Yes, Christian, right there," I yelled. My ass in the air and only my shoulders were on the bed, his thrusts were manic. It was mind-blowing as my orgasm hit me unexpectedly.

"You're so beautiful when you come," he nips my bottom lip and drags me to the edge of the bed so he was standing and he had my legs in the same position. He picks me up and carries, not once did his cock come out of my pussy. He had me in his strong arms; my legs were wrapped around his torso and my arms around his neck. I was practically bouncing with each thrust, I didn't think he could be any deeper, but I was wrong. Every time he would stretch and fill me up.

"Baby, I'm going to fucking come," he growls, pinning me to the wall as he grinding into me. "Milk my cock, baby, I want to feel you come around me."

With his simple command I reached my peak again, clutching him to me I could feel both of our hearts racing.

"What a great workout," I teased once he had put me down and pulled me up against his chest.

"It was," he concurred, "I would love to stay in your pussy tonight, but we both have early mornings."

I grumble, "Doesn't matter."

He laughs, "Come on, let's get cleaned up."

He kisses my forehead and leads me into the bathroom, where he wipes him and myself off. We head back to bed and cuddle next to each other.

"Thank you for everything," I say as I intertwine our fingers together.

"No, thank you for being patient with me," he kisses my temple.

"I would have waited, deep down I knew you felt something for me."

"Ana, it was never the lack of feelings I felt towards you, it was the fact that this is entirely foreign to me. I knew I cared about you, but the extent my emotions were so new that I really didn't know what to do with them."

I gave him a shy smile, "Thank you for being honest."

"I knew if I hadn't said anything soon, I would have lost you."

"I guess we don't have to find out what that would be like."

"I hope to never will," he pulls me into him closer.

"Happy Valentine's Day, Christian."

"Happy Valentine's Day, beautiful."


	19. Chapter 19

**Hello guys, my apologies for the lack of updates, this story is going on hiatus. I'm facing a huge writer's block that I can't seem to get over with. I've sort of become bored with the storyline and I don't want to update just for the sake of updating, that's not fair to you guys the readers. I'm pretty sure most of you can tell I've lost a bit of interest, but I hope after this break I can get back on the saddle. Hoping for your kind consideration xo**


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